Portuguese authorities said they still have to establish what caused a bus carrying 55 tourists, a guide and a driver rolled down a steep hillside after veering off the road on Portugal’s Madeira Island earlier this week.
Hours after the tragedy, Heiko Maas, Germany’s foreign minister, visited the Portuguese island and paid tribute to the victims of a bus crash in Madeira. He said his team was working to identify the victims and bring survivors back to Germany.
A damaged house with a broken wall after the bus accident with German tourists that caused 29 deaths in Caniço, Santa Cruz, Madeira Island, Portugal.
All 29 people killed in a tour bus crash on Portugal’s Madeira Island were German, Portugal’s foreign ministry has confirmed. The bus was carrying 55 people. All were German tourists except a Portuguese driver and guide. It rolled down a steep hill after veering off the road on a bend east of Madeira’s capital, Funchal, on Wednesday evening. There were 28 other persons that were injured.
The victims were roughly between 40 and 60 years old and included no children.
The Portuguese public prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the crash, the cause of which authorities said they could not yet determine. Local TV channel SIC attributed it to either a brake failure or a problem with the accelerator cable.
The Portuguese government declared three days of mourning in honour of the victims of the crash, lasting until Saturday.
The tourists reportedly were staying at the nearby Quinta Splendida, a hotel restored from a 19th-century manor house.
