Some parents came to pick their children up and a second bus arrived to the marina carpark to pick the remaining children up.
Fire services left the scene and the bus has been towed from the shoulder of the Harbour Bridge.
EARLIER: School children have had to be evacuated from a bus which appeared to have caught fire this afternoon.
The bus was parked on Hewletts Rd near the Tauranga Harbour Bridge. The incident has caused significant traffic congestion, with Mount Maunganui-bound motorists backed up to Tauranga city.
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A passer by told the Bay of Plenty Times he could see police cars and a fire engine.
There was smoke billowing out of a school bus, he said.
The man said he could see school children in uniform filing along the bridge on foot. They appeared to be high school students, dressed in blue uniform, he said.
A reporter at the scene said police were at the incident and children are waiting on a field near the Tauranga Marina car park.
The reporter said the police and the driver were looking at the bus, which appeared to be burned at the rear.
Parents could be seen picking up their children.