The driver of a coach which crashed in France, killing a 15-year-old schoolgirl and seriously injuring nine others, has said he is "deeply sorry" for the accident.

The coach, carrying pupils from Largs Academy in Ayrshire on a trip to Barcelona, overturned on the A6 near Dijon on Thursday morning.

The driver of the coach, Mark Chisholm, is being formally investigated by the French authorities on charges of manslaughter, involuntary injury and careless driving.

Once discharged from hospital, he will be free to leave the country while further inquiries are carried out.

The pupils were from Largs Academy

Mr Chisholm, 31, from Edinburgh, said: "I have a teenage daughter of my own and I cannot imagine what the parents of the girl who died are going through.

"I am deeply sorry for what happened."

He added: "I definitely did not fall asleep at the wheel. I told the doctors and the police that as soon as I was able to talk to them."

It emerged on Saturday that Mr Chisholm may have been involved in another school bus crash last month.

Coach collided

Northumbria Police said a 31-year-old man was questioned after a coach collided with a lorry on the A1 near Belford, Northumberland, on 31 May.

The driver was not named but is understood to have been Mr Chisholm.

Police confirmed the same company owned the bus involved in last month's accident, which happened as a party of children from Dalkeith High School was on its way to a museum in Beamish.

The coach collided with a lorry travelling in the same direction which was following a tractor.

A pupil and a teacher suffered minor injuries and the bus was damaged in the accident.

Katherine Fish was killed in the accident

A police spokesman said: "It was a minor road accident which caused minor damage to the coach."

Most of the pupils and teachers involved in Thursday's crash in France have returned to Scotland.

Six youngsters were flown back on Friday and taken to Inverclyde Hospital in Greenock.

Two pupils were transferred to Glasgow Royal Infirmary to undergo surgery, though their condition is not thought to be serious.

Medical experts

Six more children and teachers involved in the crash flew home on Saturday night.

The two schoolgirls and four teachers, two men and two women, were met at Glasgow Airport by a medical team that escorted them to hospital for further theatment.

The group included English teacher David McLuskey, who lost an arm in the crash.

Medical staff are still assessing when three more pupils, two girls and a boy, remaining in hospital in France, will be able to fly home.

The boy, 14-year-old Mark Nicol, is under sedation in intensive care as surgeons work to reconstruct his crushed left arm, a procedure which could take a week to complete.