WITNESSES have described a Somali woman's screams after she was hit by a bus in Harrow Town Centre just days after the road reopened.

The pedestrian, thought to be 49, stepped off the pavement at around 10am in front of an oncoming 140 bus in a section of Station Road which had been open to pedestrians due to roadworks until Saturday.

The crash left her in a life-threatening condition, with a serious head injury and chest injuries, and was so shocking it reduced the driver to tears, witnesses say.

The woman was taken to St Mary's Hospital, in Paddington, by road ambulance, having been treated at the scene after an air ambulance landed in the car park in Greenhill Way.

The driver was interviewed at the scene and no arrests have been made.

Zaki Butt, 25, a shop assistant at nearby Sugacane, said: “I heard a big sound and the woman was shouting. She was screaming and people were running.

“I just went out and the woman was lying on the road bleeding in a very serious condition. Stuff was all on the floor and people were helping her.

“They were getting tissues from Nandos, trying to stop her bleeding.”

The section of Station Road that curves round past the junction with St Ann's Road up to College Road has been out of bounds to traffic for months during roadworks intended to give the area a makeover.

A two-way bus route was resumed on Saturday, although some roadworks are still being carried out.

Michael Dhamdi, a supervisor at EEC Outlet, in St Anns Road, said he thought the recent reopening of the road could have been a factor in the crash.

He said: “I saw the victim, she was lying in the road badly hurt. She was bleeding from her nose.

“She was badly injured and the bus windscreen was also damaged on one side. They reopened this road but there are no barriers or pedestrian crossings. There's no safety.

“I always see school children there. I see it all the time in the morning, mothers going to school. They should put in a small barrier and a proper pedestrian crossing.”

He said he thought people are more likely to treat the area as if it was pedestrianised because the pavements have been lowered so they are only just higher than the level of the road.

He also suggested speed restrictions to keep buses at 5mph in that section of the road, so that any injuries caused in the event of a crash would be less serious.

Shradha Hakrar, 23, of Station Road, said she saw the air ambulance in the car park, in Greenhill Way, and went to the scene to see what had happened.

She said: “When I was walking past I heard the bus driver crying. That's why I was shocked, I saw the glass in the road.”

Police Sergeant Paul Truckle, of Alperton Collision Investigation Unit, said: “A female stepped off the kerb at the time the bus was travelling along the road, she collided with the front side of the bus.”

Officers are still on the scene investigating the crash.

Anyone with information can contact police on 0300 123 1212, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.