Passengers on a bus travelling out of Devizes had a lucky escape when one of the rear wheels came off.

The Faresaver X72 single decker bus was travelling down Caen Hill dual carriageway when the rear nearside wheel came off at about 2pm on Tuesday.

The driver managed to stop the bus safely.

Police said no-one was injured and Faresaver, based in Chippenham, sent another bus to pick up the five passengers to continue their journey on to Melksham and Bath.

One of the passengers, a 75-year-old woman from Bowerhill who was returning home after shopping in Devizes, was shaken up by the incident.

She said: “All I remember is there was this terrible noise and the bus was swerving. I looked out of the window and saw a wheel going down the middle of the road. How it didn’t hit a car I will never know. The driver managed to pull up, she was a very good driver. It happened in a split second.”

The woman’s son said: “It’s not the sort of thing you expect. My mother doesn’t use the bus very much, she will probably be using it less after this.”

Police said the bus was not being driven at excessive speed when the wheel fell off and the driver thought there had had been a blow out at first.

Traffic officer PC Chris Barham said: “It was fortunate that no one was injured.”

In a statement Justin Pickford, one of the owners of Faresaver, said: “All buses are subjected to a stringent maintenance regime and in particular, given the known issues with regard to commercial vehicle wheel loss, we pay particular attention to wheel fixings.

“We take the safety of our drivers and passengers very seriously.

“Our internal investigation will take some time to complete and we will inform the relevant authorities of the outcome of our findings in due course.”