Madeira declares three days of mourning after tourist bus crash
Three days of mourning has been declared on Madeira after 29 died in Wednesday night’s Madeira bus crash.
Local mayor Filipe Sousa confirmed 55 passengers had been on their way to have dinner at a nearby restaurant when the bus fell down a steep, narrow road and overturned several times, before crashing into the roof of a house.
He said all tourists on the bus were German but some local people could also be among the casualties.
More than 14 emergency vehicles rushed to the scene next to Quinta Splendida Wellness & Botanical Garden, in the hotel district of Canico when the accident happened, at around 6.30pm local time.
Over 30 people were taken to hospital.
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.
Twenty-eight people were confirmed dead at the scene, while another woman later died of her injuries in hospital.
Madeira was the scene of another fatal bus crash in 2005 when five Italian tourists died in São Vicente, on the northern coast.
Picture credit: TV 124
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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