A coach driver has crashed into two bollards in Maidstone town centre - on his first day in the job.

The accident happened in the High Street shortly before 1.15pm.

The driver of the National Express bus said it was his first day doing the route, from London Victoria to Dover.

Two loud bangs were heard in the town centre following the crash, which left debris strewn across the road.

No-one is believed to have been injured.

Janice and Richard Howard, who had been travelling from Norfolk to Folkestone for a holiday, were on board at the time of the collision.

They said: "We were on the back of the bus half asleep and we felt a jolt. They told us to get off. We didn't know what had happened."

The driver carried Yvonne Dekarski off the bus after the accident. The 82-year-old from Hythe, said: "I didn't see anything. I was sitting right by the side at the front, it was just a very big bang and then a clink of something."

"The driver was brilliant, he stopped almost immediately. I think he just hit it [the bollards] by a whisker but he was a good driver and he handled it very well."

The crash happened at a traffic calming pinch point in the High Street, where the road narrows to a single carriageway.

Passer-by Monika Ferguson criticised the layout of the road, saying it was an accident waiting to happen.

She said: "Buses come down here every few minutes. It is a terrible construction. I can't understand how anyone sanctioned this."

It is not yet known when repair works will place. Passengers from the coach were being taken to onward destinations by taxis.