BUS driver Vince Adams was left shaken when two phantom passengers mysteriously vanished from his bus.

The 42-year-old believes he admitted two ghosts onto his First bus.

The driver said he left Barnstaple bus station with one passenger but picked up two unusual people at Green Lanes shopping centre.

He said: "There was an elderly lady and a young man in a dark leather jacket carrying red and white carnations.

"I asked the lady if she was going to the hospital. She just smiled, so I issued her a concessionary ticket. The young man did have a ticket but remained silent."

The pair sat next to each other and Mr Adams said the bus did not stop to pick up any other passengers en-route to the hospital.

Mr Adams said he stopped his bus at the hospital and only the original passenger alighted. The odd pair had disappeared without leaving the vehicle.

The bus driver was so concerned by the missing passengers that he went into the hospital to see if he could find them. He also asked passers-by if they had noticed who left the bus.

All witnesses said they saw one person leave the vehicle.

He said: "I was very shaken up but then returned to the bus to find the concessionary ticket I had printed for the elderly lady was still in the machine."

Mr Adams, from Combe Martin, has been driving buses around North Devon for 11 years.

He said: "I have discussed it with my colleagues and wife to try and work out what happened but of course people laugh it off."

Barnstaple bus drivers have experienced other instances of a strange presence, such as smelling cigar smoke on an empty bus and the stop bell ringing on a bus out of service. All remain unexplained.

See Letters page 43.