A bus that had its roof ripped off when it ploughed into a South Norwood bridge was the sixth vehicle in just 15 months to crash at that spot, it has emerged.

Seven people were injured, with four taken to hospital by paramedics, when the double-decker bus collided with a railway bridge in Portland Road on Saturday night.

The 197 from Croydon to Peckham had taken a wrong turn before striking the 3.7m bring, which is signposted as too low for tall vehicles to pass under.

Eight vehicles have collided with the bridge in the last five years including six since April last year, according to Network Rail. 

Three have struck the bridge in the last three months - one in April, one in May and the bus on Saturday.

None of the crashes caused structural damage to the bridge, just metres away from Norwood Junction station.

A Network Rail spokesman said: "In all cases the damage was superficial not structural because the bridge is protected by collision protection beams on both elevations."

Trains were suspended on Saturday following the 9.10pm crash while engineers assessed the bridge for damage, but only superficial repairs - including to signs warning drivers about the bridge's height - were needed.

Arriva, which operates the 197 service for Transport for London, is investigating how the collision occurred. The bus's usual route would take it right onto Manor Road just before the bridge.

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A lorry performing a u-turn to avoid a collision with Portland Road bridge

A similar collision at the same bridge was narrowly avoided just days before the bus crash.

A lorry was forced to perform a u-turn on a narrow stretch of Portland Road after the driver apparently realised their vehicle would not fit under the bridge.

The lorry is thought to have scraped adjacent buildings as it performed the laborious manoeuvre in five minutes.

Some 1,708 bridge strikes were reported to Network Rail across the country in the 12 months up to March 2014, the last year for which full figures are available.

This was up 9.9 per cent on the previous year.