Bus crash in Madeira leaves at least 29 tourists dead

A bus crash in Madeira has left at least 29 people dead and 28 others injured.

The bus, which was carrying 55 German tourists, rolled down a hillside after veering off the road on a bend near the Portuguese island’s capital Funchal and hit at least one house.

The dead included 18 women and 11 men, one of whom died later at a hospital, local mayor Filipe Sousa told public broadcaster RTP.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash and Madeira’s regional government has announced three days of mourning, when flags on public buildings are flown at half-mast.

Pedro Calado, vice president of Madeira’s regional government, told a news conference that the injured, including the Portuguese driver and a local tour guide, were taken to a hospital.

Portuguese foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva said preliminary reports suggested all the dead were German, but Tomasia Alves, head of the Funchal hospital, said not all victims had been identified.

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She refused to confirm the nationality of the dead but said no children were among those killed in the crash.

The German foreign ministry tweeted its “great shock” at the accident, saying: “We must unfortunately assume that victims are from Germany”, while Angela Merkel’s spokesman said: “terrible news is reaching us from Madeira”.

Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa said in a tweet that he had sent condolences to the German chancellor.