Four dead in Austrian bus crash

Four people died after a tourist coach crashed in Austria, officials said tonight.

Thirty-four people were also injured in the incident near Salzburg which happened as the bus driver was thought to have lost control of the vehicle on a main road.

There were a total of 46 people on board including 42 British, one Australian, two Russians, and one German.

The nationalities of those who died has not yet been confirmed.

The accident occurred on a road outside the town of Duerrnberg at around 4.30pm local time.

Unconfirmed reports suggested that the coach got into difficulty as it was attempting to overtake another vehicle and then left the road.

It fell 30 metres down a steep embankment, turning over and ending up on its roof in a field.

An alert was immediately sent out to all local rescue services and nine helicopters – including four air ambulances – went to the scene along with a large number of rescue vehicles.

The pilot of one helicopter told reporters that the scene “looked like a war zone” as he flew in.

Doctors and medics treated victims at the scene, as other rescue workers cut trapped passengers out of the wreckage. All of those on board the coach were freed within about an hour of the accident.

The coach is understood to belong to a company based in the holiday resort of St Wolfgang, which offers excursions to tourists staying in the picturesque lakeside village.

No children are believed to have been on board at the time of the crash.

A rescue service official said the coach had been travelling downhill and it rolled over twice.

He said: “The bus was going on a main road downhill. It turned over twice so we had a lot of injuries.”

Those injured were taken to hospitals in Salzburg seven miles away, the official said.

Emergency procedures had been put in place and a list of the names of those involved was being delivered to British Embassy officials.