SEVENTEEN PEOPLE HAVE been taken to hospital after a coach overturned in heavy fog in the UK.

The Oxford Bus Company coach came off a slip road on the M40 northbound at Junction 7 in Oxfordshire at around 2.45am.

The driver and 16 passengers are being treated for injuries.

The South Central Ambulance Service (SCAS) declared it as “a major incident due to the number of patients involved”.

In a statement issued SCAS said, “There was thick fog in the area at the time of the accident which also presented challenges to the emergency services getting to the scene.

The male coach driver and 16 adult passengers (mixture of male and female) had sustained a variety of minor injuries, such as cuts, bruises, broken bones, etc., and all 17 patients were taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

“At the scene, we had six ambulances, a rapid response vehicle, three ambulance officers (two bronze and one silver), a BASICS Doctor and the Trust’s Hazardous Area Response Team.”

It comes after a woman died and several other people were injured in four separate crashes involving more than 20 cars on the A40 in Oxfordshire on Wednesday.

Read: Woman killed and several injured in 20 car pile-up in the UK>