A BUS company has launched an inquiry into a father's claims that his sick11-year-old son was abandoned by a bus driver.

Stephen O'Brien was travelling to St Augustine's School, Elker Lane, Billington, when he began to feel unwell.

His father said the boy approached the driver as they were stopped at traffic lights in Whalley. The schoolboy got off the vehicle to be sick then watched "in disbelief" as the driver continued with the two-mile journey, leaving him standing in the road.

Mr Francis O'Brien, of Armitage Street, Rishton, claimed that his older son Kevin, 13, who was also on the bus, shouted at the driver to wait for his brother. But he drove on.

Anthony McNamara, headmaster of St Augustines RC High School, said: "We are deeply concerned about this incident and actively pursuing the matter with Lancashire United Bus Company."

Graham Mitchell, group communications manager for Blazefield Holding Limited, which owns Lancashire United, said: "I can confirm that on Thursday, September 13, an incident occurred at Whalley in which a pupil of St Augustine's alighted from a school contract bus operated by the subsidiary Lancashire United against the instruction of the driver. We regard this as a serious matter and a formal inquiry is in progress."

Mr O'Brien said: "Fortunately a teacher from the school drove past Stephen on her way to work and stopped to pick him up. He was hysterical.

"The children on the bus told a member of staff as soon as they arrived at school.

"If the bus driver was unable to wait for my son he should have got on the radio and told the police where Stephen was."

Mr O'Brien also claimed that he had been offered no explanation for what happened or who exactly was responsible for the incident other than the fact that a driver had been suspended for a day.

For now Stephen will stay at his home in Cliff Street, Rishton, where he lives with his mother Sharon Boddy, until his parents are happy that appropriate action has been taken.

Mr O'Brien added: "He loves going to school but this was only his second week at St Augustine's and he has been traumatised by the incident. He will not be going back until I have some answers."