Arriva Buses, responsible for the bus service, said it took allegations of this nature “very seriously”, with an internal investigation into the drivers behaviour launched.

Sophie, who suffers from cerebral palsy caused by pneumococcal meningitis as a baby, said public transport was a “lifeline” for her, and an incident like this has her “scared to get on the bus”.

“Everybody was staring, so I felt it was like a whole audience was watching me. It’s bad enough, people stare anyway. There are daily challenges anyway being a wheelchair user,” she told the BBC.

“It’s the only place that I can actually go without someone driving me anywhere. It gives you some freedom.”

The bus driver reportedly put the wheelchair access ramp down, but is claimed to have stood partially in the way , blocking Sophie from trying to board.

She said her chair was “half-on, half-off” and her back wheels became trapped.

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The 21-year-old claimed the driver then tried to push her chair on to the bus, despite telling him she didn’t require his assistance.

In a statement, Shropshire Council said although it did not run the service, it was “concerned to hear about Sophie’s experience and will be contacting the operator”.

Arriva Buses UK confirmed “an internal investigation is currently under way”, and that it “takes allegations of this nature very seriously and will be in contact with the customer directly”.

Ella Knight, Sophie’s friend and acting carer, said she “couldn’t imagine” what it felt like for her, so decided to speak up for her friend.

She claimed the driver started to shake Sophie’s electric wheelchair, disrupting its systems and damaging the wheelchair whilst set to a mode preventing pushed assistance.

“He could have broke her wheelchair,” she said, adding that other passengers tried to intervene and help, which led to the driver shouting at them too.

Struggling to get to the scanner to scan an access pass, one passenger offered to do it for them, before being barraged by abuse from the driver who yelled at him, claiming Sophie and Ella needed to pay.

“After it had been explained that Sophie was a wheelchair user, as he could clearly see, I was acting as her carer that day, so we’d had all entitlement to use that pass”.

Bus drivers can be investigated for all manner of reasons, be that conduct and behaviour, or involvement in a road traffic incident.

One case in December where a woman sustained a head injury after being hit by a Stephensons of Essex bus in central Southend saw the driver placed under investigation.

Essex Police confirmed the driver would face no further action after the investigation deemed him not responsible for the collision, and that the woman struck by the bus was primarily responsible for crossing the vehicles path.

Simon Crump, service delivery manager at Stephensons, said at the time that the driver was exonerated, and having been “very shocked” by the nature of the incident was being offered ongoing support.

The woman struck by the fleet vehicle was taken to hospital for treatment for a head injury and later recovered.