A former Oxfordshire college student has been named as one of five young British women killed in a bus crash in Ecuador.

Four teenagers and a 26-year-old died as they travelled from the country's capital, Quito, to a fishing village as part of a trip organised by gap year travel specialists VentureCo.

The victims included Indira Swann, 18, a former pupil at Henley College, in Henley-on-Thames, who lived in Maidenhead, Berkshire.

The others were named as Emily Sadler, 19, Rebecca Logie, 19, Elizabeth Pincock, 19 - all students taking a year out between school and university - and Sarah Howard, 26, a freelance trip leader on her first expedition for VentureCo.

On her Facebook page Miss Swann had written about the rough bus journey she endured on a trip to the volcano of Cotopaxi.

"I was sick on the bus - the rockyest bus I've ever been on, it drove through a river!" she wrote.

Ecuadorian police said a lorry carrying a load of sand crashed into the left side of the bus. The lorry driver fled the scene.

A further 12 Britons, one French national and two Ecuadorians, a driver and a tour guide, were also injured in the accident, suffering broken bones, concussions and cuts to the legs and faces.

Those with less serious injuries are likely to begin making their way back to the UK in the coming days.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said it understood the local authorities had appointed a prosecutor to investigate the tragedy.

Gordon Brown expressed his sadness at the tragic news.

His spokesman said: "The Prime Minister was deeply saddened to hear of the deaths of five young British people in Ecuador.

"His thoughts are with their families and friends.

The crash happened at about 7.30pm local time yesterday in Sancan, on the road between Manta and Jipijapa, when the group's bus, operated by a company called Reina del Camino (queen of the road) was struck by the lorry.

Mark Davison, the director of Warwick-based VentureCo, said the group were reaching the end of an eight-hour journey and were just 30 minutes from their destination when the accident occurred.

The group were taking part in the £5,645, 15-week "Inca and Amazon Venture", which set out on March 27 and began with two weeks of Spanish language tuition in Quito.

They were on their way to the poor fishing village of Puerto Lopez, where they were to build sanitation and other facilities for a creche.

VentureCo has been operating tours to South America since 1999, and had often used the bus company involved in the tragedy.

The company currently has several other trips in South America, and Mr Davison said he would "gauge the temperature" of the groups about whether they wished to continue or return home.