A Brighton and Hove bus driver was hit in the eye by flying glass after children threw a stone through his cab window.

The 34-year-old was injured after stopping his number 2 bus near The Winner pub in Freshfield Road, Ovingdean.

He told a group of about 15 schoolchildren, believed to be from Longhill School in Rottingdean, to get off because he thought they were creating a disturbance.

After they left the vehicle, someone picked up a stone and hurled it through the bus window, covering the driver with shattered glass.

He was treated for cuts by paramedics and was later taken to the Sussex Eye Hospital in Eastern Road, Brighton, to have fragments removed from his eye.

The police were called but by the time they arrived the boys had run off in the direction of the racecourse.

Peter Gatt, whose 11-year-old daughter Kimberley was among the schoolchildren who witnessed the incident, said: "My little girl came running in crying and upset because she was chucked off the bus at the top of Elm Grove.

"She said quite a few of them had been told to get off and one of the boys had thrown a stone which smashed the window and hurt the driver.

"I suppose nowadays kids are bound to retaliate if they are shouted at or thrown off the bus when they don't think they have done anything wrong.

"It was wrong to throw the stone but I don't think it is right to throw children off the bus either."

Roger French, managing director of Brighton and Hove Bus and Coach Company, said his driver was still off work today but was expected to make a full recovery.

He said: "We are concerned about the behaviour of schoolchildren and will be looking into how this incident developed in the way it did.

"Things like this do happen from time to time and it is often hard to say whether anyone's behaviour is at fault as some people's idea of rowdiness might be very different from someone else's.

"We may discuss the matter with Longhill School who we have always found to be excellent at resolving problems with behaviour in the past."

A spokeswoman for the school said staff were looking into the incident and were in discussions with Mr French.