Rock band Ash have been involved in a bus crash while on tour in the US.

The crash, in which drummer Rick McMurray cracked his ribs, has thrown into doubt the Northern Irish band's planned appearances at the forthcoming Reading and Leeds festivals.

Ash manager Stephen Taverner told BBC News Online the crash happened at 0730 local time on Friday, while the group were on the way to Detroit to play a gig at Moby's Area:2 festival.

The bus was overtaking a truck on a motorway when it hit a tyre in the middle of the road, he said.

He added: "The band were thrown out of their bunks on to the floor. That's how Rick got what we suspect is cracked ribs."

None of the other members of the band was injured.

The group cancelled their appearance on Friday at the Area:2 and their manager refused to say whether the band were certain to play the forthcoming festival gigs at Reading and Leeds.

Punk-influenced

Ash burst onto the music scene as teenagers in the mid-1990s with punk-influenced singles like Kung Fu, Girl From Mars and Angel Interceptor.

Guitarist and vocalist Tim Wheeler, 25, bassist Mark Hamilton, 25, and drummer McMurray, 27 - from Downpatrick, County Down - were joined in 1997 by London-born guitarist Charlotte Hatherley, 23.

Their most recent album, 2001's Free All Angels, met with critical acclaim and a new single, Envy, is released on 26 August.

Two weeks ago Oasis frontman Noel Gallagher was injured in a car crash in Indiana.

A Welsh tour bus driver was killed when his vehicle - carrying American band Alien Ant Farm - crashed in Navalmoral de la Mata, western Spain.