At least 29 killed in Madeira tourist bus accident

At least 29 people, most of them German tourists, were killed and 27 others injured on Wednesday when their bus veered off a steep narrow road on the Portuguese island of Madeira, authorities said.The white tourist bus -- which was carrying 55 passengers and a tour guide in addition to the driver -- overturned in a residential area in the coastal town of Canico at around 6:30 p.m. (1730 GMT), its mayor, Filipe Sousa, told reporters.

TV images showed the vehicle on its side on a bank next to a small road and surrounded by rescuers.The driver reportedly lost control of the bus on a sloping road and the vehicle plunged down, overturning next to a house, according Portuguese news agency Lusa."I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people," Sousa told SIC TV.He said the tourists on the bus were all German but some pedestrians might have been hit by the bus.

Germany's Bild daily reported that many of the tourists were retirees, and those killed included 18 women and 11 men.The German foreign ministry had set up a hotline and embassy staff were in close touch with local officials about the accident, a spokeswoman said. Other members of the same group of German tourists were traveling on another bus, which was not involved in the accident, a regional civil protection spokesman told a news conference.