Tragedy of M4 minibus crash

A teenage boy today told of the moment he held his best friend's hand as he died after a horrific motorway accident.

Mohammed Azhar Ali, 15, was killed when the youth club minibus he was in swerved violently at high speed near the Heston services on the M4 before rolling into the embankment.

Three of his friends were badly injured and one remains in hospital after the accident, which happened as three youth centre workers were taking eight east London teenagers for an adventure weekend to Avon Tyrrell in Bournemouth.

"Ali was trapped under the bus's chairs. He wasn't moving. I didn't know whether he was dead or alive," said Shah Alom, 16, from Whitechapel.

"I kept squeezing his hand to try and make him wake up but he didn't move. I kept praying he would respond in some way."

Shah was pulled away from his dying friend by one of the youth workers from the Whitechapel Youth Centre as the van lay precariously on its side.

Shah told how Ali had been trying to call his mother Rina Begum, 44, as the horror of the accident unfolded. "He just wanted to let her know he was OK but he couldn't get through."

It was then the minibus swerved across the M4 lanes as Ali grabbed his best friend's hand. "The driver shouted that the bus had lost its balance," said Shah. "The next thing I remember was when the bus came to a stop and Ali was still holding onto my hand."

Ali's sister Lipi found it hard to accept her younger brother - nicknamed Shamim by his family - had died when Shah rang to tell Ali's family the tragic news.

"We didn't want to believe it," his 19-year-old sister said. "We kept praying it wasn't Shamim."

Speaking from the family home in Plaistow, Lipi paid tribute to her brother, an A-grade GCSE student from Swanley School in Whitechapel. "He was really bright and loved his media studies course. He could have done anything he wanted. He was also a devout Muslim-with a really strong faith. We're all praying he goes to heaven."

Crash survivor Noim Uddin, 16, remains in a stable condition in hospital after a piece of glass cut into his kidney. Other survivors - Anwar Ali, Tharak Hussain, Jubhare Hussain and Kaleem Mukem, all 15 years old - spoke of the horror as the minibus lurched across the motorway lanes on Friday.

Jubhare, who broke his arm in the crash, said: "We were all laughing and joking, then suddenly everyone was screaming."

Kaleem added: "We kept screaming for the police to get Ali out, but they kept saying it was too dangerous."

All the survivors claim they were told by the driver to inform police they had been told to wear belts. "They told us to tell the police that we had been told to put our seat belts on and that we had them on, but we were never told that," said Shah.

Ray Avery, chief executive of the Prospects Group, the company that runs the Whitechapel Youth Centre said: "The police are carrying out a complete investigation and we are also carrying out a full internal investigation. Our thoughts are with the family of the young man who was killed in the accident."

Mr Avery added: "As far as we are aware seatbelts were worn by everybody on the bus. Clearly this is something the police and our own investigation will check on."

Scotland Yard said a 43-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and had been bailed to return to a police station on 20 October. A post-mortem was due to be held today at Kingston mortuary.