A BUS full of schoolchildren came within inches of falling into a flooded field.

The double-decker, which was thought to be carrying between 60 to 80 children, aged between 11 and 15, was travelling along The Street, Castle Eaton, when its rear offside wheel went into a ditch.

The bus, which was on its daily route to Farmor's School, in Gloucestershire, then began to teeter.

But the schoolchildren were ushered out of the vehicle's emergency exits before anyone was hurt.

Melody Lyall, the landlady at the Red Lion Pub, in Castle Eaton, said it was a very near miss.

"The only thing that kept that bus upright was a small wall that it wedged itself against," she said.

"Otherwise it would have tipped over into a flooded field.

"Because both the front doors were on that side things could have turned very bad very quickly.

"It was quite dramatic. I was in my conservatory drinking my morning coffee and I witnessed the whole thing.

"The field on the other side is flooded at the moment - it is under several feet of water.

"You can imagine the outcome if it had toppled over."

Mrs Lyall provided shelter for all the children in her pub until they were picked up by another bus and taken to school at about 8.40am.

She says the incident occurred just after the bus had travelled over the River Thames and was in the process of crossing paths with a car coming from the opposite direction.

She added: "The car that was passing the bus, as it slipped into the ditch, stopped to help the children.

"Soon after that a whole string of cars stopped and everyone made sure that the children were alright.

"Another bus was arranged and it came right away to pick up the kids from my pub.

"I would have said they were pretty lucky as it would have been tough to get them all out of that bus without it going over on its side."

She said that some of the children were shaken but the vast majority of them found it fun.

The bus picks up children in Kempsford, Hemmington and Castle Eaton.

The police were called to the scene at 8.10am and were on the scene assisting the children within 10 minutes.