Twelve day-trippers from Sussex escaped without major injury after their coach veered off the road and overturned into a ditch.

They were among 48 passengers on board when the driver lost control just before 6pm last night on a tight stretch of the A259 coast road.

The driver had just picked up the passengers from Dover, where they had arrived from Calais after a four-day break in Belgium and Holland.

Police said the coach was travelling slowly towards Hastings when the accident happened on a stretch were roadworks were in progress.

The single-decker veered off the side of the dual-carriageway in wet conditions and overturned in a ditch at Brookland, Kent. Some of those on board had to be cut free by firefighters.

Forty-five passengers were taken to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and three to the Conquest Hospital in Hastings.

Among the 12 from Sussex were people from Hastings, Eastbourne, Brighton and Worthing. Their injuries were not thought to be life-threatening.

A spokesman for Kent Police said: "The driver was travelling at slow speed when for some reason he left the carriageway and went into a ditch.

"Health and safety will be involved to check the condition of the coach. We will also be looking at the roadworks to see whether they played a part in this accident."