LONDON (AFP) - A woman and an eight-year-old boy were killed and five other people injured on Saturday (Oct 3) when a double-decker bus ploughed into a supermarket in the centre of Coventry in central England.

The bus crashed into several cars and a lamppost before hitting the supermarket on what would have been a busy shopping day in the city centre.

"Boy (8) and woman confirmed dead after Coventry bus crash," West Midlands police said in a tweet.

The boy was on the upper deck of the bus.

"It was absolute chaos," Mr Maneer Fiaz, an eyewitness who took part in rescue efforts as bystanders rushed to help, told Sky News.

"We got the driver out through the window," he said, describing seeing children stranded in the upper part of the double-decker bus.

A nine-year-old girl also on that deck was seriously injured and is one of five people being treated in hospital after the incident.