A YOUNG woman driver died and six people were injured after a car was in a head-on collision with a coach yesterday.

The woman - who has not yet been named - was driving through Tintern on the A466 yesterday evening when her Ford Fiesta was in collision with the coach which was full of passengers.

Police say the dead woman was aged 18 and came from Monmouth. The crash, which happened at 6.30pm, closed the road for about six hours as emergency services, including fire crews from Chepstow, Malpas and the Gloucester area, worked at the scene.

The coach, which police say is owned by a Caerphilly firm, was travelling south on the A466 when the crash happened outside the Old Station tourist attraction in Tintern.

Sergeant Chris Wright, from Gwent Police, told the Argus: "An ambulance was at the scene in minutes but they pronounced her dead on their arrival."

The dead woman was taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport.

Police say the Fiesta driver had been travelling northbound on the A466 from Tintern to Monmouth when the crash happened.

Inspector Christopher Brown, of Newport Cent-ral police, said none of the passengers on the coach was seriously hurt in the crash.

But he said four people were taken to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport for treatment, and two were taken to Nevill Hall Hospital, Abergavenny.

Uninjured coach passengers were escorted from the scene of the accident to The Sloop Inn, Llandogo, where they remained for an hour until a replacement coach arrived to pick them up.

The inn's owner Julie Grace said: "The passengers were from the Cardiff area and there must have been over 45 of them here because they took up all the chairs."

Accident investigators were at the scene last night and investigations into the tragedy were continuing today.

*PICTURED: Diversion signs in Tintern last night near the scene of the fatal accident