SEVEN people were hurt in a crash between a car and a minibus carrying teenagers in Weymouth.

They were injured when the vehicles were in collision on the stretch of Dorchester Road between the Lorton Lane junction and the Swan pub.

The smash at 4.50pm led to traffic chaos, with major tailbacks in rush hour last night.

There were queues and congestion on Dorchester Road and back routes to Dorchester after the crash.

A man aged 69 was airlifted to hospital by the Somerset and Dorset Air Ambulance with serious injuries after the collision.

He had been trapped in the wreckage of a Cherokee Jeep in the smash, and was cut free by firefighters.

The man suffered serious but non-life threatening abdominal and leg injuries and was flown to the Dorset County Hospital in Dorchester. Police, firefighters and the air ambulance were joined at the scene by four ambulances, a paramedic response car and a duty officer.

An off-duty paramedic who was in the traffic behind the accident was first on the scene.

David Toman, who is lead paramedic at Weymouth ambulance station, said: "It was a serious accident with huge potential for injuries.

"There were multiple casualties and there was good work between all of the agencies involved to deal with the situation and the casualties involved."

Three other people in the Jeep - all from Buckinghamshire - were also taken to hospital with injuries.

A woman aged 65, suffered shoulder and abdominal injuries. Two men aged 28 and 35 had minor injuries.

The party in the minibus was from Devon. The driver, aged 58, suffered minor leg injuries.

A boy aged 15 had minor head and leg injuries. Another boy aged 15 had minor leg injuries.

The crash caused major tailbacks along Dorchester Road. Rescuers needed one and a half hours to safely remove casualties and send them to hospital.

Police closed the road at the scene of the accident but later re-opened one carriageway and directed traffic through while the vehicles were moved and debris cleared away.