Natasha Paton: It took five hours to confirm pupil was missing

TEACHERS and emergency workers were engaged in a frantic headcount of pupils for five hours before they confirmed that Natasha Paton was missing, it has emerged.

As pupils were pulled from the wreckage through the sunroof of the bus, passing lorry drivers and motorists offered shelter to pupils in their vehicles.

Many of the 100-150 residents of the village, which has a population of less than 200, also took teenagers into their homes.

Staff first began to count the youngsters shortly after the crash at 6am.

But, amid the confusion, it wasn't until 11am that it was confirmed one pupil was missing and Natasha's body was found trapped under the bus.

Eyewitness Iain Heggison, 45, said: "Teachers did a headcount at the scene. One of the kids had said to me it should be 39 of us.

"At 9:30am a RAF Sea King helicopter arrived here and one of my neighbours got his boltcutters to cut a wire fence to let it land.

"While all this was happening , the emergency services kept going around the cars and lorries doing headcounts, but they still couldn't get it up to 39. At 9:45am a Stewarts of Carluke bus arrived to take the children to Wiston village hall.

"When the children were being taken away to the village hall, emergency services did three headcounts – when they went on the bus, when they were sitting down and just before it left – but they still couldn't get the numbers right.

"Then just about 11am the emergency services did another check of the bus and that's when they found her.

"It was when someone shouted up 'we've got her' that I knew they had reached 39."