Hero trainer saves young footballers' lives on motorway

A German football club's youth team were saved from death by their trainer after a freak accident knocked out their coach driver at 70mph.

Werder Bremen's Markus Werle, 39, grabbed the wheel and hit the brakes when a spring from a passing car smashed through the window into the driver's head.

The youth team, boys aged nine and 10, were returning from a tournament in Neu Ulm in southern Germany. Fifty miles from Bremen, with the boys asleep, the car part flew from the Mercedes and hit the 60-year-old driver in the face. Mr Werle brought the bus to halt half a mile along the road.

"His quick thinking saved the lives of all on board," said police spokeswoman Sandra Wendt. "The children were shaken up but otherwise unharmed."

The driver is undergoing treatment in hospital for severe face and eye injuries. Police are hunting for the car which caused the accident.