Canico, Portugal - Madeira began three
days of mourning on Thursday for 29 German tourists who died
after their bus veered off a steep road, as Germany's foreign
minister and a trauma team flew to the Portuguese island to meet
survivors.
The bus, carrying 55 tourists and one guide, overturned on
Wednesday evening in the coastal town of Canico, its mayor,
Filipe Sousa, told reporters.
Portugal's public prosecutor's office opened an
investigation into the accident, whose cause authorities said
they could not yet determine. Local TV channel SIC attributed it
to either brake failure or a problem with the accelerator cable.
In Berlin, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said he would fly to
Madeira on Thursday with a team of doctors, psychologists and
consular officials to meet those affected and thank Portugal for
its help.
"We have no certainty as yet as to how many Germans were
among the victims." he said in a statement, while Chancellor
Angela Merkel expressed "sadness and shock" at the scale of the
tragedy.
Authorities on the island confirmed all 29 people killed
were German, of whom the country's best-selling daily, Bild,
said were 18 women and 11 men. Many were retirees, the newspaper
added.
A police officer takes pictures at the site of a bus accident, in Canico, in the Portuguese island of Madeira. Picture: Duarte Sa/Reuters
"I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face
the suffering of these people," Sousa told SIC TV.
All but one of the 29 victims died at the crash scene and,
of the 28 passengers treated for injuries, four remained in a
critical condition on Thursday, a spokesman at the hospital in
the nearby capital Funchal told a news conference.
Images taken by Reuters photographers on Thursday showed the
bulk of the wreckage had been removed, leaving some debris still
scattered on the ground. Other pictures showed damage to a house
next to where the bus came to a halt.
The 29 victims were members of a bigger holiday group, of
whom other members were travelling on another bus, a regional
civil protection spokesman said.
Emergency services attend the scene after a tour bus crashed at Canico, on Portugal's Madeira island. Picture: TVI via AP
Two of the injured were Portuguese and the rest were foreign
nationals, the hospital spokesman said. Patients were being
treated for head, abdominal and chest injuries.
A similar crash on the island in 2005 killed five Italian
tourists.
Portugal's Foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva will also
fly to Madeira on Thursday, and its Prime Minister Antonio Costa
sent his "deepest condolences" to victims' family.
Merkel said German authorities were in contact with their
Portuguese counterparts and stood ready to assist.
Twenty-nine German tourists are reported to have died in the crash. Picture: TVI via AP
"I think with sadness and shock of our compatriots and
everybody else who was affected by the dreadful bus accident on
Madeira," she added in a Twitter statement posted by her
spokesman.