Crash survivor 'well looked after'

Nicola Cox, 19, from Bradley Stoke, in South Gloucestershire, was one of 12 Britons injured when the bus she was travelling in was struck by a lorry.

Ms Cox was on a gap year after leaving the Ridings High School in Winterbourne, South Gloucestershire, last summer. She has a place at Nottingham University to read medicine this autumn.

Those injured in the accident were transferred to capital Quito for treatment and are likely to return to the UK in the coming days.

It's believed Ms Cox hit her head but was not seriously hurt.

Speaking from her Bradley Stoke home, Nicola's mother Lynne said she spoke to her daughter on the phone.

She said: "She's doing really well. She's sore and bruised but in better spirits. We're just waiting for confirmation of when they will be coming home now. Hopefully she'll be back in the next 24 hours."

Nicola and the group were on their way to the village of Puerto Lopez, where they were due to build sanitation and other facilities for a creche as part of a trip organised by gap year travel specialist VentureCo.

Gap year students Emily Sadler, 19, from Northwood, Hertfordshire; Rebecca Logie, 19, from Chorley, Lancashire; Indira Swann, 18, of Maidenhead, Berkshire, and Elizabeth Pincock, 19, a former pupil of Taunton School in Somerset, were all killed.

Sarah Howard, 26, from Northwich, Cheshire, a trip leader on her first expedition, also died.