Madeira mourns

MADEIRA has declared three days of mourning after 29 tourists died in a coach crash on the island.

Twelve men and 17 women from Germany were killed when the vehicle plunged down a steep hillside on Wednesday.

A woman who survived the accident told a Portuguese TV channel that the bus crashed after hitting a wall. She added: ‘It happened just after the bus started, one minute or a few seconds later.’

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: ‘My sincere condolences go above all to those families that have lost loved ones in this tragedy.’