A thief stole a double-decker bus from a depot and took it on a joyride before crashing it into a building.

The Stagecoach bus was taken from a depot on Clarence Street, Ashton-under-Lyne , in the early hours of Saturday morning.

It was taken on a short drive towards Droylsden , but the driver collided with some scaffolding and a building on Clegg Street.

Police were called to the scene at around 1.20am.

The offender managed to escape from the stolen vehicle and left it damaged outside the building.

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Ben Higginson saw the bus hit the building and was nearly hit by the vehicle before it crashed.

He said: "I was stood on the pavement at Droylsden police station walking towards the shop where it happened.

"It passed us at that point doing high speed but very close to the pavement and was inches from knocking me off the pavement.

"We then noticed had veered off a little further down and realised what had happened.

"We didn't see anybody flee from the bus.

"But I checked nobody was injured and then left the bus.

"Another bus had witnessed the crash, pulled over to report it to stagecoach on the radio and contacted police to say it had been stolen."

A spokeswoman for Greater Manchester Police said no arrests have been made and enquiries are on-going.

She said there were no reports of any injuries and nobody else was on the bus at the time.

Stagecoach said they were working with police.

A spokeswoman said: "We can confirm that a bus was stolen from our Ashton Depot at 1.04am on 5 December before being involved in a collision with scaffolding surrounding a building on Clegg Street in Droylsden.



"Thankfully nobody was injured as a result of this incident. We are assisting the police fully with their investigation."

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