It was only clipped by a bus as the driver tried to pull out of a cramped parking space - but this shelter collapsed like a pack of cards.

The shelter's posts were ripped from the ground, uprooting paving slabs and scattering glass across the street.

The number 98 Stagecoach bus from Eastbourne town centre to Hastings collided with the bus stop outside the McDonald's restaurant in Terminus Road, Eastbourne at 9.30am yesterday.

There were no passengers and no one was hurt.

Sean Catt, operations manager for Stagecoach in Hastings, said: "The shelters do collapse fairly easily.

"Fortunately nobody was hurt and there were no passengers on the vehicle at the time of the incident, just the driver. It appears it was a bit of a tight parking spot and the back of the bus clipped the shelter as the driver pulled out."

Adshel, the company responsible for the repair and maintenance of the shelters, cordoned off the shelter with orange tape.

Buses from both Stagecoach and Eastbourne Buses, continued to use the bus lane, parking near the fallen shelter for passengers to get on board.

Greg Hughes, from Hampden Park, Eastbourne, was just leaving McDonald's when he heard the crash. He said: "I didn't think it was going to be as bad as it was.

"I saw the bus scraping it and it didn't stop.

"The shelter just buckled, I think it must have been the angle the bus caught it at."

A spokesman for Adshel said a replacement bus shelter could take up to six months to be put up.