Three Dutch tourists killed in Portugal bus crash

Portuguese Lusa agency says one of the injured is in critical condition and two others are seriously hurt

LISBON: Three Dutch tourists were killed and 31 people injured when their bus crashed in southern Portugal late Wednesday, officials and media reports said.

The bus was carrying 33 tourists and a driver when it skidded off the road and down an embankment on the A22 highway north of the city of Albufeira in the southern Algarve region, according to Dutch and Portuguese media reports.

One of the injured is in critical condition and two others were seriously hurt, according to the Portuguese Lusa agency. The injured were transferred to various local hospitals.

The crash occurred shortly after 2200 GMT on Wednesday, as the bus was driving tourists to their various holiday destinations after collecting them at the region's Faro airport, according to Dutch broadcaster NOS.

Dutch foreign ministry spokesperson Herman van Gelderen said that "three Dutch tourists have been killed and 29 others, many of them Dutch, have been injured."

The cause of the crash was not immediately clear, police said.