A BRIDE-to-be's dress fitting session interrupted when a coach tyre burst -- shattering a window at a bridal wear shop.

Exploding air pressure from the tyre was so strong it broke a large window at the newly-opened Volare bridal shop in Tyldesley town centre.

The bride-to-be, dressed in a wedding gown, was standing in front of a mirror at the rear of the shop when the window suddenly cracked into splinters.

Shop owner Teresa Phillips and her mother Ann Turner thought a shot had been fired and dashed outside to see what had happened.

The incident comes just two week after a single decker bus mounted the pavement in Elliott Street, hitting a shop, and killing a pedestrian.

Ann said: "I was in the other window getting a veil. At first I thought a shot had been fired or the mirror had cracked.

Exploded

"I went outside to see what had happened. A coach had been passing outside the shop when a tyre exploded. The driver said a tyre had gone."

The coach belonging to Mayfield Travel of Lower Green Lane, Astley was empty at the time and fortunately no-one was injured in the incident which happened where the one-way stretch of Common Lane merges with Manchester Road.

Ann was thankful she had not been sitting at a desk near the broken window at the time of the incident.

A £390 dress in the front window of the shop -- which only opened five weeks ago -- was damaged in the incident.

Ann said: "Earlier on we had a tulle dress in the window but we had changed it that morning, otherwise that would have been all ripped. It's lucky we changed it."

On Monday the shop window was repaired.

A Mayfield Travel spokesman said it was a "freak incident" but declined to make any further comment.