Friends and family of the five young British women killed in a coach crash in Ecuador paid emotional tributes to them today as the shaken survivors of the tragedy prepared to fly home.

Harry Felton, 19, boyfriend of Indira Swann, was among many who left messages on the 18-year-old’s Facebook webpage overnight after hearing the news. In a message left at 5.15am he wrote simply: “I love you.”

Nadia Kuftinoff, of the University of Greenwich, wrote: “I never told you how beautiful you were. I can’t believe you’re gone.” Another friend, Harley Jerome, wrote: “Someone so sweet in such a harsh world. To everyone you met, you made a difference to their life."

Four teenagers and their 26-year-old group leader died as they travelled from the country’s capital, Quito, to a fishing village as part of a trip organised by gap year travel specialists VentureCo.

Ecuadorian police said a lorry carrying a load of sand crashed into the left side of the bus. The lorry driver fled the scene.

A further 12 Britons, one French national and two Ecuadorians, a driver and a tour guide, were also injured in the accident, suffering broken bones, concussions and cuts to the legs and faces.

Those with less serious injuries are likely to begin making their way back to the UK in the coming days. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) said it understood the local authorities had appointed a prosecutor to investigate the tragedy.

Nicola Yudin, whose 19-year-old son Alex suffered cuts and bruises in the crash, said he had told her that he wanted to come home as soon as possible. Mrs Yudin told The Times: “He was very quiet [on the phone], which is not like him. I think they will all fly back as soon as they are able to.

“They just will want to be back home with their families. I think we can understand that’s what he wants to do. It’s a big shock. It's a tragedy. They are so young."

The family of one of the victims paid tribute to their “fun-loving and popular” daughter. Emily Sadler’s family said: “She was a beautiful bubbly girl with her whole life ahead of her. Her loss is indescribable.”

The 19-year-old lived in Northwood, Hertfordshire, with her parents, Graham and Kay, her two sisters, Annelisa and Libby, and her two brothers, George and William. She was on a gap year before going to Manchester University to study history, and had worked as a swimming teacher for a local gym and a teaching assistant in a local school to save money to go on the trip, her family said

They described her as the “kind of girl that everybody loved”.

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