29 German tourists killed in bus crash on Madeira, Portugal
Updated 13:35, 18-Apr-2019
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Twenty-nine German tourists were killed when their bus spun off the road and tumbled down a slope before crashing into a house on the island of Madeira, which is one of the two autonomous regions of Portugal, on Wednesday.
The tourist bus, which was carrying 55 passengers and a tour guide in addition to the driver, overturned in a residential area in the coastal town of Canico at around 6:30 p.m. (1730 GMT), its mayor, Filipe Sousa, told reporters.
He also said 17 women and 11 men were killed in the crash, with another 21 injured. Another woman died of her injuries in the hospital, taking the death toll to 29.
Rescue workers deal with the grim aftermath of the tourist bus crash in Madeira, Portugal, April 17, 2019. /AFP Photo

Rescue workers deal with the grim aftermath of the tourist bus crash in Madeira, Portugal, April 17, 2019. /AFP Photo

The driver reportedly lost control of the bus on a sloping road and the vehicle plunged down, overturning next to a house, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa.
Drone footage of the aftermath of the accident showed the badly mangled wreckage of the bus resting precariously on its side against a building on a hillside, the vehicle's roof partially crushed and front window smashed.
Rescue workers attended to injured passengers among the undergrowth where the bus came to rest, some of them bearing bloodied head bandages and bloodstained clothes, others appearing to be more seriously hurt.
Rescue workers help victims of the Madeira bus crash, in which at least 29 people died, in in Madeira, Portugal, April 17, 2019. /AFP Photo‍

Rescue workers help victims of the Madeira bus crash, in which at least 29 people died, in in Madeira, Portugal, April 17, 2019. /AFP Photo‍

Local authorities said most of the dead were in their 40s and 50s.
They were among the more than one million tourists who visit the Atlantic islands off the coast of Morocco each year, attracted by its subtropical climate and rugged volcanic terrain.
"Horrible news comes to us from Madeira," a German government spokesman tweeted after the crash.
"Our deep sorrow goes to all those who lost their lives in the bus accident, our thoughts are with the injured," he added.
Firemen help a victim of a bus crash in Madeira, Portugal, April 17, 2019. /AFP Photo

Firemen help a victim of a bus crash in Madeira, Portugal, April 17, 2019. /AFP Photo

German holidaymakers were the second largest group after British tourists to visit the islands, known as the Pearl of the Atlantic and the Floating Garden in the Atlantic, in 2017, according to Madeira's tourism office.
The islands are home to just 270,000 inhabitants.
"I express the sorrow and solidarity of all the Portuguese people in this tragic moment, and especially for the families of the victims who I have been told were all German," President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told Portuguese television.
He said he would travel to Madeira overnight.
 Madeira is off the northwest coast of Africa.. /AFP Photo

 Madeira is off the northwest coast of Africa.. /AFP Photo

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa added on Twitter that he had contacted German Chancellor Angela Merkel to convey his condolences
"I took the occasion to convey my sadness to Chancellor Angela Merkel at this difficult time," he wrote on the government's Twitter page.
Regional government Vice President Pedro Calado said it was "premature" to speculate on the cause of the crash, adding that the vehicle was five years old and that "everything had apparently been going well".
Judicial authorities have opened an investigation into the circumstances of the accident, the Madeira public prosecutor's office told Lusa.
Medical teams were being sent from Lisbon to help local staff carry out post-mortems on the dead.
Source(s): AFP ,Reuters