Twenty-nine people have died after a tour bus carrying German tourists crashed on the Portuguese island of Madeira on Wednesday, authorities have said.
A further 28 people were injured after the white bus veered off the road and overturned in a residential area, striking at least one house in the coastal town of Canico, its mayor, Filipe Sousa, told reporters.
The dead included 18 women and 11 men, one of whom died later at a hospital, Sousa told public broadcaster RTP. Early reports suggest they were all German, however this has not been confirmed by hospital officials.
TV images showed the vehicle on its side on a bank next to a narrow road and surrounded by rescuers.
“I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people,” Sousa told SIC TV.
He said the tourists in the bus were all German but some pedestrians might have been hit by the bus.
Madeira’s regional government announced three days of mourning. Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash.
A spokesman for German chancellor Angela Merkel said that "terrible news is reaching us from Madeira".
The German foreign ministry, in a tweet, expressed “great shock” at the accident.
“We must unfortunately assume that victims are from Germany,” it said.
Portuguese prime minister Antonio Costa tweeted that he had sent condolences to Merkel. “I learned of this tragic accident in Madeira with deep sorrow,” he said.