A Hobart bus driver has been suspended after students were kicked off the bus and forced to walk 3km to school.

A bus driver has been suspended after students at a Hobart Catholic school were kicked off the bus and left to walk the remaining three kilometers to school.

The incident happened on Tuesday morning when students from Howrah were on their way to St. Virgil’s College in Austins Ferry.

Bus operator Kinetic Tasmania said in a statement to Pulse the driver was “immediately removed” while an investigation was carried out into why the students were “involved in a potentially dangerous situation”.

“We take the safety of all passengers seriously, especially students and young people,” Kinetic Tasmania CEO Andrew Grzinich told Pulse.

“After learning of an incident involving schoolchildren on one of our services yesterday, we immediately deployed another bus to pick them up and contacted the school to ensure they were accounted for, which they were.”

“We were also in touch with parents throughout the day.”

In a letter to parents, St Virgil’s principal John Franzine said the college was informed of the incident at around 9am.

He said the students were “forced to walk the remaining distance to school from Claremont College.”

“The college considers this course of action by Kinetic unacceptable and is currently working with senior management at Kinetic to ensure that similar incidents do not occur in the future,” he said.

Bus services to Howrah resumed on Tuesday afternoon after Kinetic assured there would be no further disruption.