A brave schoolboy helped free his father from a car after a school bus ploughed into the vehicle, dragging it into a row of houses.

Quick-thinking Nathan Pearce grabbed a knife and rushed to his dad's aid following the smash on Carnbroe Road in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire.

Stuart Pearce was on his way to pick up his two sons on Friday afternoon when the coach ploughed into the back of his car, dragging him into two bungalows.

Nathan raced to the car and managed to cut his dad free from the wreckage.

Speaking of the ordeal, the 11-year-old told STV News: "The engine was still on so it could have exploded and there's also gas boxes at the front of the house, so that was my main concern.

"After I freed him he crawled out through the bushes and came out with blood all over the side of his head then the ambulances came to check him over."

Mr Pearce was taken to hospital where he was treated for minor injuries and has since been released.

Nathan told how he and his baby brother Harry were waiting for their dad to pick them up minutes ahead of the smash.

The schoolboy said: "I could have been sitting on the passenger seat and Harry would sit right behind me.

"It was just the thought that we could have both been dead if we were in those seats.

"I was getting ready to go in the car two minutes before it happened so it's just the thought that I could have died. I've actually seen where I could have died."