Picture used for illustrative purposes only.

Four people have been taken to hospital after a school bus carrying more than 40 children overturned in Northern Ireland.

The Northern Ireland Ambulance Service (NIAS) said the bus crashed in County Down with 43 schoolchildren and one driver onboard, with eight treated at the scene near Carrowdore for their injuries.

Images showed the bus overturned in a field, and the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service described it as a major incident, with paramedics, firefighters and police all rushed to the scene.

The mother of a 12-year-old boy on the bus, who sustained an injury to his head and is a pupil at Strangford Integrated College, said she could hear pupils screaming over the phone after the vehicle turned over.

The road is closed and motorists have been asked to avoid the area.

Local SDLP politician Will Polland alleged that concerns had been raised multiple times about the road where the crash occurred.

The Independent