A HEAVILY pregnant woman was among the passengers of a double-decker bus as it was toppled by high winds on Thursday. The C9 bus from Ely to Cambridge turned over at about 3.45pm on the A10 outside Stretham with four passengers on board, all of whom susta

A HEAVILY pregnant woman was among the passengers of a double-decker bus as it was toppled by high winds on Thursday.

The C9 bus from Ely to Cambridge turned over at about 3.45pm on the A10 outside Stretham with four passengers on board, all of whom sustained only minor injuries.

The driver of the bus also received minor injuries, and queues of traffic built up while fire crews helped passengers from the bus.

A pregnant woman whose baby is overdue was taken to the Rosie Maternity Hospital by police shortly after the accident.

Traffic officer Pc Stephanie Corletto happened to be travelling in the opposite direction when the accident happened.

"The wind just took the bus," she said.

"All I saw was the top of the bus jerk sideways and it was in the ditch - thankfully the bus wasn't very full."

A Highways Agency recovery team closed the road for just over two hours, at 10pm, while the bus was dragged from the ditch, and the A10 was re-opened around midnight.

An earlier recovery attempt had been made at 6pm, but it was abandoned because of the high winds.

Andy Campbell, managing director of Stagecoach Cambridgeshire, said there was considerable damage to the bus and it is not clear at this stage whether or not it will return to service.

"The driver is off sick at the moment and is suffering from bruising and a sore leg," he said.

"When he returns to work we will interview him to see if there is anything we can do to prevent this from happening in the future."

Police have said they are not taking any action against the driver.

# UNPREDICTABLE weather caused chaos on the district's roads and railways last week.

And Cambridgeshire police received more than 1,000 emergency calls during the peak of the high winds on Thursday - double the amount of calls received on an average weekday.

More than 250 calls were road-related incidents, many of which included fallen trees and debris on the road.

Pictured at the top of the page is Sutton Gault, which was once again hit by flooding and the road was closed. It was re-opened the following morning.

A spokesman from the county council said specialist Highways crews were out in treacherous conditions to ensure affected roads were re-opened as soon as possible.

"We were called out in East Cambridgeshire about 12 times due to falling trees and debris on the roads," he said.

Elsewhere, commuters were left stranded and unable to return to Ely on Thursday as train services were hit.

Villagers in Haddenham and Sutton suffered from power cuts as high winds disrupted services on Thursday.

Pupils at Bottisham Village College were sent home after a section of the gymnasium roof was damaged by the extreme weather. Pupils returned on Monday following an inspection from the district council's dangerous buildings officer, who declared the building safe after repairs were made.

A spokesman from the county council said: "More thorough repair work will be carried out over the coming weeks.