HOLIDAYMAKERS from North Craven are due home today (Friday) after a frightening accident during an excursion to a glacier in Norway.

The holidaymakers, mostly pensioners, were on a coach trip organised by Bibby's of Ingleton.

They were enjoying a horse drawn carriage ride to the Briksdal Valley glacier at Stryn, in western Norway, when one of the dozen or so horses bolted on the way back. It is thought the animal was either bitten or stung by an insect.

Its actions caused other carriages to overturn and around 15 of the 50 people on the excursion were injured and required hospital treatment.

Several had to have surgery although none of the injuries are thought to be life-threatening.

One of the most severely injured was 77-year-old Chris Mitton, a former Ingleton parish councillor and member of Ingleton Working Men's Club. He was thrown out of his carriage at speed and sustained a fractured pelvis, arm, ribs and cuts to his head.

His wife, Joan, 70, escaped with cuts and cruises.

The couple's daughter, Linda Redhead, said she had managed to speak to her parents on Wednesday and they were in good spirits.

She added that there were two other ladies in the carriage from the local area, but said they had not been badly injured.

The Mittons had gone on the Bibby's trip with two other couples, Andrew and Beryl Brown and Bernard and Mary O'Neil, but they were not involved in the accident.

Also injured in the incident were Rathmell couple Raymond and Shirley Wolfenden.

Mr Wolfenden suffered a broken elbow and his wife, a retired teacher from Addingham, received cuts and bruises when they were flung from their horse-drawn carriage.

Embsay couple Sydney and Peggy Reeder, who were also on the excursion, were believed to have escaped serious injury after leaping from one of the speeding carriages.

Mr Reeder told a reporter that it was "mayhem".

"One horse suddenly reared up and started to gallop down the pass. Then the other horses panicked too. People were screaming."

Another Embsay couple, former Keighley magistrate and lay preacher John Fidler and his wife, Ann, are also believed to have escaped injury.

Sheila Holcroft, for Bibby's, said: "High level company support is being offered by Bibby's of Ingleton who arranged this tour and they are working alongside their British and Norwegian suppliers to ensure every assistance and support is being given to the group."