Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The bus plunged off a road and overturned near houses

At least 29 people have died after a bus carrying German tourists plunged off a road and overturned on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

Another 27 were injured in the accident near the town of Caniço.

The accident happened at 18:30 (17:30 GMT) when the driver lost control of the bus at a junction and went off the road, according to Portuguese news agency Lusa.

Pictures show how the vehicle stopped just short of destroying a house.

"I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people," the mayor of Caniço, Filipe Sousa, told broadcaster SIC TV.

He said all the tourists on the bus were German but some local people could also be among the casualties. Eleven of the fatalities were men and 17 women, Mr Sousa added. The bus was reported to be carrying 55 passengers, as well as the driver and a tour guide.

Another woman later died of her injuries in hospital.

The vice-president of Madeira's regional government Pedro Calado said the bus met safety standards and so it was "premature to talk about what caused the crash".

Image copyright AFP Image caption The bus appeared to have rolled down a hillside

Image copyright AFP Image caption Ambulances ferried the injured to hospital

An investigation into the crash has been launched, with the bus company, Madeira Automobile Society (SAM), saying it has a "deep commitment" to finding out exactly what happened, local newspaper Diario de Noticias Madeira reported.

According to reports, the vehicle was only five or six years old and the driver was experienced.

The scene of the crash has been sealed off and the injured transferred to a hospital in the island's capital, Funchal, Lusa said.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa is flying to the island to visit the scene, the agency said.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa has sent a message of condolence to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Reuters reported.

The German government spokesman Steffen Seibert tweeted: "Our deep sorrow goes to all those who lost their lives in the bus accident, our thoughts are with the injured."

Madeira was the scene of another fatal bus crash in 2005 when five Italian tourists died in São Vicente, on the northern coast.</s>Portuguese foreign ministry confirms the 29 people killed in tour bus crash in Madeira were German

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Portuguese foreign ministry confirms the 29 people killed in tour bus crash in Madeira were German .</s>CANICO, April 18 — The Portuguese island of Madeira today began three days of mourning after 29 German tourists died after their bus spun off the road and tumbled down a slope before crashing into a house.

Drone footage of the aftermath of the accident near the town of Canico showed the badly mangled wreckage 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 a halt, some of them bearing bloodied head bandages and bloodstained clothes, others appearing to be more seriously hurt.

Local authorities said most of the dead were in their 40s and 50s. There were 11 men and 18 women were among the victims and all of them were German.

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.

The 50-odd tourists had left their hotel and were on their way to the regional capital Funchal when the accident occurred yesterday evening.

Prosecutors have opened a probe and the vice-president of the regional government Pedro Calado said it was “premature” to attribute the cause of the accident, saying the bus was five years old and has been recently inspected.

The injured were “in a state of shock, with memories of terrible images. An injured woman said she had lost her partner,” Ilse Everlien Berardo, the pastor at the German Evangelical church in Madeira, told Germany’s RTL network.

He said local authorities were trying to find “people on the island who speak German. Even though the doctors and nurses are tending to the injured with great care and compassion, it’s important for the injured to hear their mother tongue,” he said.

A makeshift morgue has been set up at the airport in Funchal, local media reports said. Medical teams will be flown in from Lisbon to carry out autopsies.

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.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa added on Twitter that he had contacted German Chancellor Angela Merkel to convey his condolences

“It is with profound sadness that I heard of the accident on Madeira,” he wrote on the government’s Twitter page.

“I took the occasion to convey my sadness to Chancellor Angela Merkel at this difficult time,” he added.

The last serious bus accident in Madeira occurred in December 2005, killing five Italian tourists in Sao Vicente. — AFP</s>The Latest on the deadly bus crash on Portuguese island of Madeira (all times local):

Portugal's foreign ministry has confirmed that all 29 people killed in a tour bus crash on Madeira Island were German.

Authorities previously said they were still working to identify the victims of Wednesday evening's crash, which saw the bus veer off a road and roll down a steep hill. Twenty-eight others were injured.

The statement says Portuguese Foreign Minister Augusto Santos Silva will join his German counterpart Heiko Maas later Thursday on the Portuguese island off northwest Africa.

It says the government reiterates its condolences to the victims' families after Wednesday's accident, which also injured 28 people.

Madeira is a popular vacation destination for Europeans, with tourism being one of its economic mainstays.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's chief of staff says a German military medevac plane is on stand-by and could be sent to Madeira to bring those affected by Wednesday's bus crash back to Germany.

Helge Braun told reporters in Berlin on Thursday that the identities and exact number of German citizens among the 29 killed on the Portuguese island is still unclear.

But Braun said "we have information that it was a travel group composed mainly of German holidaymakers."

He said information on the victims would only be released once relatives have been informed.

Germany's foreign minister says he will fly to Portugal's island of Madeira with a team of doctors, psychologists and consular officials to assist those affected by the deadly crash of a tour bus carrying mostly Germany tourists Wednesday.

Heiko Maas said in a statement Thursday that it's still unclear how many German citizens were among the 29 killed and dozens injured in the crash.

Maas said the German ambassador in Lisbon has already arrived in Madeira and diplomats are "working hard together with local officials" to get clarity about the circumstances of the crash.

He said a crisis management team has been set up in Berlin and on Madeira, and a hotline is available for concerned relatives.

A hospital official on Portugal's Madeira Island says authorities expect to identify by Saturday the victims of a tour bus crash that killed 29 people.

Tomasia Alves, head of the Funchal hospital, told a news conference Thursday that of the 28 people injured in the accident, nine have been discharged from hospital. She says two of the injured are a Portuguese man and woman but provided no further details.

The bus that veered off a road and rolled down a steep hill Wednesday evening was carrying German tourists, as well as a Portuguese driver and guide.

Authorities haven't specified whether there were casualties among people on the road or at the roadside at the time.

Alves says the victims were roughly between 40 and 60 years old and included no children.

Authorities on Portugal's Madeira Island have removed a tour bus from the hillside where it crashed, killing 29 people and injuring 28, many of them German tourists.

Local media report that rescue services used two cranes early Thursday to pull out the bus, which was carrying 55 people when it went off the road and rolled down a hill.

The wall of a house, which appeared to halt the bus's fall Wednesday evening, was smashed in. Parts of the bus, including seats, and items of clothing litter the hillside.

The tourists reportedly were staying at the Quinta Splendida, a hotel set in a botanical garden, with rooms in a restored 19th-century manor house.

Portuguese authorities have not yet identified the victims by name or nationality.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expressing "sadness and shock" over the bus crash that killed many of her compatriots on Portugal's Madeira island.

In a statement Thursday, Merkel voiced "sincere sympathy for all of the families who have lost their loved ones in this tragedy."

At least 29 people were killed when a bus veered off the road and toppled down a hill Wednesday. Most are reported to be German tourists.

Merkel said she hoped those injured and their relatives would be able to recover from the physical and psychological injuries, and thanked Portuguese emergency responders "who were working under difficult circumstances at the site of the crash."

Germany's foreign minister, Heiko Maas said "we must assume that there are many Germans among the victims."

A German pastor working on Madeira is praising the medics who cared for the survivors of the bus crash on the Portuguese island that killed 29 people.

Ilse Everlien Berardo told German broadcaster n-tv Thursday the survivors she spoke to were "very calm. Of course, they were in a state of shock."

The bus carrying 55 people, many of them vacationers from Germany, rolled down a steep hillside Wednesday after veering off the road on a bend east of the capital, Funchal, striking at least one house.

Berardo said the "the nurses and doctors were really touching in the way they dealt with the people."

Berardo said she spoke to one woman who thought she might have lost her partner, adding. "what I can do is hold their hand and show them they're not alone."</s>Rescue workers stand next to the wreckage of a bus after an accident in Canico, in the Portuguese Island of Madeira, April 17, 2019.

LISBON - Twenty-nine German tourists were killed on Wednesday (April 17) when a bus crashed on the Portuguese island of Madeira.

Televised images showed the bus had spun off the road, apparently having flipped several times, before crashing into a house at the bottom of a slope.

"Horrible news comes to us from Madeira," a German government spokesman tweeted after the deadly crash. "Our deep sorrow goes to all those who lost their lives in the bus accident, our thoughts are with the injured," he added.

Filipe Sousa, mayor of Santa Cruz where the accident happened, said 17 women and 11 men were killed in the crash, with another 21 injured.

A doctor told reporters another woman died of her injuries in hospital.

"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.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa added on Twitter that he had contacted German Chancellor Angela Merkel to convey his condolences.

"It is with profound sadness that I heard of the accident on Madeira," he wrote on the government's Twitter page. "I took the occasion to convey my sadness to Chancellor Angela Merkel at this difficult time," he added.

The regional protection service in Madeira confirmed 28 deaths in the accident that happened at 6.30pm (1.30am Thursday Singapore time), while hospital authorities said another woman later died of her injuries.

The bus had been carrying around 50 passengers.

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 had opened an investigation into the circumstances of the accident, the Madeira public prosecutor's office told the Lusa news agency.

Medical teams were being sent from Lisbon to help local staff carry out post-mortems on the dead.

Often called the Pearl of the Atlantic, Madeira hosts thousands of tourists each year, attracted to its subtropical climate and rugged volcanic terrain.</s>Portugal: At least 29 German tourists were killed after a bus, they were travelling in, plunged off a road and overturned on the Portuguese island of Madeira yesterday, local officials said.

The accident took place at 18:30 (17:30 GMT) when the driver lost control of the bus at a junction and went off the road. The vehicle eventually landed on the roof of a house.

Mayor Filipe Sousa told media that all the tourists on the bus were German but some local people could also be among the casualties. Eleven of the fatalities were men and 17 women.

The bus was reported to be carrying 55 passengers, as well as the driver and a tour guide. Another woman succumbed of her injuries in hospital, he added.

The vice-president of Madeira’s regional government Pedro Calado said the bus met safety standards and so it was “premature to talk about what caused the crash”.

The mishap site has been sealed off and the injured transferred to a hospital in the island’s capital. An investigation into the crash has been launched, officials informed.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa has sent a message of condolence to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.</s>Authorities on Portugal’s Madeira Island are working to identify the victims of a tour bus crash that killed 29 people and injured 28 others, many of them German tourists who were on board the vehicle.

The bus, carrying 55 people, rolled down a steep hill after veering off the road on a bend east of Madeira’s capital, Funchal, on Wednesday evening when it was still light and in fine weather.

Authorities said they are investigating the cause and would inspect the bus for mechanical problems.

The bus was carrying German tourists, as well as a Portuguese driver and guide. People at the roadside are also thought to be among the casualties.

Tomasia Alves, head of the Funchal hospital, said authorities hope to have a list of victims by Saturday. She said the victims were roughly between 40 and 60 years old and included no children.

She said 28 people were taken from the accident scene to a morgue, and another person died later in hospital.

German foreign minister Heiko Maas said he was “deeply shaken by the tragic bus crash”.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel expressed “sadness and shock” at the accident.

“My sincere sympathy goes especially to all of the families who have lost their loved ones in this tragedy,” she said.

Rescue services used two cranes before dawn on Thursday to pull the bus, which was lying on its side with part of its roof torn off, from the crash site, local media reported.

The wall of a house, which appeared to have halted the bus’s fall, was smashed in. Parts of the bus, including seats, and items of clothing littered the grassy hillside, which looks out over the Atlantic Ocean.

The tourists reportedly were staying at the nearby Quinta Splendida, a hotel restored from a 19th-century manor house.

Madeira, off the coast off north-west Africa, is a popular holiday destination for Europeans due to its mild climate and lush, hilly landscape.

A German pastor on Madeira praised the medics who cared for the survivors.

Ilse Everlien Berardo told a German broadcaster the survivors she spoke to were in a state of shock.

She said Madeira officials “immediately looked for people on the island who speak German”.

“Even though the doctors and nurses cared touchingly for the injured it’s also always important to hear your mother tongue and get a few words of attention,” she said.</s>LISBON, Portugal (AP) - The Latest on the deadly bus crash on Portuguese island of Madeira (all times local):

Authorities on Portugal's Madeira Island have removed a tour bus from the hillside where it crashed, killing 29 people and injuring 28, many of them German tourists.

Local media report that rescue services used two cranes early Thursday to pull out the bus, which was carrying 55 people when it went off the road and rolled down a hill.

The wall of a house, which appeared to halt the bus's fall Wednesday evening, was smashed in. Parts of the bus, including seats, and items of clothing litter the hillside.

The tourists reportedly were staying at the Quinta Splendida, a hotel set in a botanical garden, with rooms in a restored 19th-century manor house.

Portuguese authorities have not yet identified the victims by name or nationality.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expressing "sadness and shock" over the bus crash that killed many of her compatriots on Portugal's Madeira island.

In a statement Thursday, Merkel voiced "sincere sympathy for all of the families who have lost their loved ones in this tragedy."

At least 29 people were killed when a bus veered off the road and toppled down a hill Wednesday. Most are reported to be German tourists.

Merkel said she hoped those injured and their relatives would be able to recover from the physical and psychological injuries, and thanked Portuguese emergency responders "who were working under difficult circumstances at the site of the crash."

Germany's foreign minister, Heiko Maas said "we must assume that there are many Germans among the victims."

A German pastor working on Madeira is praising the medics who cared for the survivors of the bus crash on the Portuguese island that killed 29 people.

Ilse Everlien Berardo told German broadcaster n-tv Thursday the survivors she spoke to were "very calm. Of course, they were in a state of shock."

The bus carrying 55 people, many of them vacationers from Germany, rolled down a steep hillside Wednesday after veering off the road on a bend east of the capital, Funchal, striking at least one house.

Berardo said the "the nurses and doctors were really touching in the way they dealt with the people."

Berardo said she spoke to one woman who thought she might have lost her partner, adding. "what I can do is hold their hand and show them they're not alone."</s>Official: Tour bus crash kills 28 people, mostly German tourists, on Portugal's Madeira Island off northwest Africa

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Official: Tour bus crash kills 28 people, mostly German tourists, on Portugal's Madeira Island off northwest Africa.</s>A tour bus crash on the Portuguese island of Madeira has killed 28 people, many of them German tourists, a local official said Wednesday.

Canico Mayor Filipe Sousa told media outlets that 17 women and 11 men were killed when the bus rolled down a steep hillside after veering off a highway east of the capital, Funchal. Public broadcaster RTP reported that 22 others were taken to a hospital in Funchal with injuries "of various severities."

Sousa said the bus was carrying 55 people. Local television showed bodies scattered over the rural hillside next to the Atlantic Ocean.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known. People living in the area said the weather was fine at the time of the crash, which unfolded in daylight in the early evening.

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Madeira, approximately 600 miles northwest of the Moroccan coast, has been an autonomous region of Portugal since 1976. It is a popular vacation spot for many Europeans.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
At least 29 people, all German tourists, are killed in a bus crash in Caniço, Madeira Islands.