Portuguese beach cliff collapse kills five

A LANDSLIDE at a Portuguese seaside resort killed five people and injured four yesterday.

Part of a cliff collapsed and buried bathers at Maria Luisa beach in Albufeira on the Algarve, said Marques Pereira, the head of maritime facilities in Faro.

The nationalities of those involved in the accident have not been disclosed.

National emergency service INEM said in a statement that a 38-year-old woman who had been seriously injured by falling rubble died later in Faro hospital. Reports said a 60-year-old man and three other women, two aged under 25, also died.

The section of beach under the cliff that collapsed had been cordoned off with signs pointing out the danger of a possible landslide.

“The sandstone of the cliff was pretty fragile and a risk of a landslide existed to the point that the maritime authority had placed warning signs,” Mr Pereira said.

Rescue efforts were concentrated in trying to find a man and a child under the rubble before the tide came in to hamper emergency workers.

INEM told Portuguese state news agency Lusa that rescuers believed they had located the bodies of the two missing people but had yet to retrieve them from under tonnes of sandstone.

Prime Minister Jose Socrates was among those who travelled to Albufeira to oversee rescue operations.