A headteacher has praised the bravery of a pupil who has just learned that his hand was amputated following a fatal coach crash in France last week.

Mark Nicol, 15, was hurt in the accident which claimed the life of schoolmate Katherine Fish.

A number of other pupils and teachers from Largs Academy were injured in the accident, which took place on the A6 near Dijon as the group headed for Barcelona.

He has been informed of the loss of his hand and he has reacted brilliantly to the news

George Maxwell Headteacher

A 13-year-old girl is on her way home after a successful operation in Dijon hospital.

Headteacher George Maxwell thanked all those who had sent messages of support to the Ayrshire school - and paid tribute to those injured in the accident.

He said that Mark had been taken out of intensive care in a French hospital on Thursday.

"He has been informed of the loss of his hand and he has reacted brilliantly to the news," said Mr Maxwell.

"He is very positive, very upbeat, grateful to be alive and in great heart, great spirits and improving minute by minute."

Education officials

Elaine Jenkins, 13, was expected to arrive back in Scotland later on Thursday after being released from hospital in France.

Mr Maxwell, 54, has spent recent days visiting the remaining injured staff and pupils at a number of Scottish hospitals.

He was among a group of senior education officials from North Ayrshire who travelled out to France immediately after the accident to visit the injured with their families.

George Maxwell has visited victims

"We are probably in some kind of middle phase at the moment," he said.

"We have probably got over the initial shock and the kind of disbelief that comes when you get an accident like this.

"We are now in the phase of recovery for those who are injured, while trying to fix the details of how we say farewell to Katherine.

"I expect there may be a third phase from the time of the memorial service later this month when we may start to look ahead."

A private funeral for Katherine, 15, will be held on Friday, followed by a memorial service at the school on 15 July.

Cards and flowers

Mr Maxwell said he had been struck by the strength shown by her family.

"I first went there to offer my support to them, I now leave their house feeling that it is they who are holding us together," he said.

Thousands of flowers and cards have been left at the school entrance since the tragedy.

Katherine Fish's funeral will be held this week

Mr Maxwell said the school had also received letters, faxes and phone calls from across the world.

He said the French authorities had been "immense" following the crash, telling how one surgeon stayed on duty for three days to treat the injured.

Mr Maxwell also expressed the school's sympathy to families who lost loved ones in this week's mid-air collision over Germany - on a school trip also bound for Barcelona.

Many children from the Russian republic of Bashkortostan were among the 71 people killed when a Tupolev passenger jet operated by Bashkirian Airlines collided with a Boeing cargo plane.

"It was very hard when I picked up the paper and found out about the plane crash, which quite coincidentally was going to Barcelona," said Mr Maxwell.

'We are with them'

"All I can think of is if we have gone through what we have gone through, what on earth will it be like for those Russian families?

"I just know that everyone in Largs would want me to say that we are with them, but we have no idea at all what they must be going through."

However, he said he hoped that the French accident would not deter the school from organising trips at some point in the future.

Coach driver Mark Chisholm, 31, from Edinburgh, faces charges of manslaughter and involuntary wounding over the accident.