TWO early morning Stagecoach buses blocked a village high street street for more than an hour when they became stuck, waking up sleeping residents.

The farcical situation happened in Ruardean when a double decker and single decker going in opposite directions became jammed near the Malt Shovel pub around 7am on Friday morning,

A school bus was held up for nearly an hour by the blockage, which ended with the jammed buses damaging each other as they finally scraped past, with witnesses reporting that one lost a window and another a door.

Village resident Megan Taylor, who saw the chaos from her window and took pictures of it, posted about the chaos on the Ruardean Noticeboard Facebook page: “Wouldn’t bother trying to come through Ruardean at the moment as two buses once again stuck because of stupidity....been sat there for half an hour.”

Later she added: “Still there nearly an hour on..” before reporting that one had finally made it “through with a smashed window” leaving “debris on the road” and “a door ripped off the other bus”.

The incident on West End involved the No 24 double decker bus going to Gloucester and the No 35 heading to Monmouth, which completely held up traffic, including a school bus.

Residents described the situation as “crazy” and “ridiculous”.

One mum added: “My daughter waited in the rain for an hour for the No 35 to take her to school – in the end I had to drive her to school which resulted in her being late for school, and me being late for work.”

But not everyone was critical, with one poster calling for “compasssion” and saying: “I bet most people have made an error or two driving and are fortunate that it’s not splashed across the local news.”

The impasse was finally broken when the single decker forced its way past.

A spokesperson for Stagecoach West said: “We can confirm there was an incident close to The Malt Shovel Inn in Ruardean in the Forest of Dean before 8am involving two buses which became stuck after trying to pass one another.

“We sent out a replacement bus for customers immediately and an investigation is under way into what happened.”