A BUS which smashed into an Oxford house this week will not be removed for at least a week to allow the property to be propped up.

On Wednesday afternoon, an Oxford Bus Company vehicle crashed into two council houses on Morrell Avenue and East Avenue, Headington, which joins the road. The families living there were evacuated and have been temporarily rehoused

Video footage, that has now been seen over 72,000 times on Facebook, shows the empty bus rolling down the hill, and crashing into a house while a man, believed to be the driver who was not on the bus at the time, walks slowly towards it.

Oxford City Council, which owns the properties, said the bus would only be recovered after the worst-affected property, on Morrell Avenue, had been ‘propped up and braced’. This is expected to take at least a week.

Robert Dyer, 55, who lives in the house which took on the brunt of the crash, said his family, including two daughters, were left 'distraught and gutted' after the incident.

Mr Dyer had been home alone when the vehicle crashed into his home. Nobody was injured.

The council said it has placed both families in hotels as an interim step before finding a more ‘sustainable option’ for them to live in while work by Oxford Direct Services (ODS) to remove the Number 15 bus continues.

To protect the insecure Morrell Avenue property over the weekend, the council has arranged security to look after the home.

Councillor Diko Blackings, cabinet member for affordable housing, housing security, and housing the homeless, said: “Our tenancy management team contacted both families to offer support within 20 minutes of our being notified of the accident by the Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service.

“Our surveyors quickly established that neither home is habitable, with the Morrell Avenue property suffering extensive damage which could take some time to repair.

“We are keeping the situation under constant review and are in frequent contact with both families to offer ongoing support.

“This includes immediate financial help.”

A spokesperson for Oxford Bus Company said: "It is a complex situation and it is our priority is to get the bus removed as soon as it is safe to do and we are working with key partners to achieve this.

“We have not been able to examine the vehicle so far as we are working with relevant parties on how to recover the vehicle safely from the site of the incident to our Cowley depot to allow this to happen.

"However, our preliminary investigation and knowledge of the vehicle type involved suggest at this early stage that the primary cause was not related to any mechanical defect, but we cannot confirm this fully until the vehicle has been recovered."