Second bus tragedy in Portugal

It is not known exactly how many people were on board the bus

VIMIEIRO, Portugal -- At least 14 people were killed and 25 injured on Saturday when a bus plunged into a ravine.

The accident is Portugal's second major road accident in three weeks.

A spokeswoman for the National Civil Defence Service said the bus, carrying mainly elderly people, skidded off a road in central Portugal and plunged 30 metres (100 feet).

Those onboard had been visiting the shrine of Fatima, one of Roman Catholicism's most revered sites.

"Now 14 people are dead and 25 injured, six of them seriously," the spokeswoman told Reuters, adding that survivors were receiving treatment in local hospitals.

The accident happened at about 2000 GMT on Saturday near the town of Vimieiro, about 220 kilometres (135 miles) north of the Portuguese capital Lisbon.

She could not give the exact number of people on board the bus, which belonged to the local authority in Viseu, a town near Vimieiro where most of the passengers lived.

More than 100 firemen, police and ambulance crews worked at the scene of the accident, where the wreckage of the upturned bus lay in a tennis court near smashed guard rails by the side of the twisting mountain road.

"It's a very dangerous road and it was raining hard," National Guard Major Antonio Rosas said in Vimieiro.

The state news agency Lusa said nine people had already died since the beginning of the year on the same stretch of road before Saturday's accident.

Portugal has one of Europe's highest rates of fatal traffic accidents.

Bodies from the earlier tragedy at Castelo de Paiva are still missing

Earlier this month up to 70 people died in Portugal when a 19th-Century bridge collapsed and sent a double-decker bus and several cars tumbling into the swollen, fast-flowing waters of the northern River Douro.

Emergency crews and divers are still searching for the bodies of most of the victims of the March 4 accident at Castelo de Paiva, having so far found just 16, seven of whom were washed up on the coast of Spain's neighbouring Galicia region.

The disaster three weeks ago prompted the swift resignation of the Public Works Minister and has since sparked criticism of the poor state of repair of bridges and roads in the country's less developed hinterland.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Bridge bodies wash up in Spain
March 9, 2001
Divers to sift river in bridge collapse
March 7, 2001
Lisbon accepts bridge deaths blame
March 6, 2001
Bridge deaths pressure on ministers
March 5, 2001
Search goes on for bridge victims

Portugal Civil Defence
Portuguese Presidency

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