Nicola Sturgeon has thanked hero bus driver Charmaine Laurie, whose quick-thinking averted disaster on a snowy Edinburgh road.

Ms Laurie swerved to narrowly avoid a Mini which turned into her path as Scotland was battered by a snow storm nicknamed "the beast from the east".

The moment was captured in dashcam footage and has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times online.

The First Minister met with the Lothian Buses driver on Monday morning as she visited the firm to meet new modern apprentices.

Sturgeon thanked those who had helped keep Scotland moving during the heavy snow, saying Ms Laurie was a "local hero."

She told STV News: "I think everybody watched the video of her steering the bus after it went into a skid expertly well.

"There are so many individual stories of heroism that will have happened over the last couple of days.

"It was really good to meet Charmaine this morning to say well done to her.

"But I want to take the opportunity to say well done to everybody who has played their own part in making sure we've coped with these really difficult conditions."

A clip recorded by a motorist showed the double-decker bus skid as she avoided the turning car at the last second.

Speaking on Good Morning Britain following the incident, Ms Laurie also said her training kicked in when she saw the hazard.

She said: She said: "I was just coming up over the hill and the visibility was quite poor so I was going quite slow.

"I just saw the car do a U-turn. I really didn't have much time to react to it.

"My training just kind of kicked in and a lot of luck to be honest with you.

"When my back end started going out I knew to take my foot off the brake and just tried to glide through it.

"Luckily it went well."