Thinking that it was just a pot hole that had damaged the buses suspension, 48-year-old driver Shi Shao continued puttering along until worried passengers rang the bell and notified him that the entire back end was scraping along the ground.

With sparks flying from the undercarriage Mr Shi immediately stopped in the middle of a busy road to wait for a tow truck. However, as a result the bus brought rush hour traffic in the city of Shaoyang to a standstill.

When police arrived at the scene naturally they couldn't believe their eyes and found the two detached wheels a considerable distance behind the brightly coloured bus.

Luckily no one was hurt in the accident, but there may have been some pride lost by the driver and the mechanics located back at the depot. 

It hasn't yet been confirmed, but there are local reports suggesting the wheels were successfully re-attached with extra sticky sticky-tape.