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Wed 11 Aug, 2004 01:29 am
Quote:The five people killed after a tour bus plunged down an embankment in the Austrian Alps were British, Austrian emergency services says.
Forty-three people were also injured after the bus carrying mainly British tourists ran off a road and plummeted 30 metres (90 feet) down an embankment in Austria on Tuesday.
"Five people died and all five people were British," Gerhard Huber, head of Salzburg's emergency services, told BBC radio on Wednesday.
The Foreign Office said it could not confirm the statement.
The accident happened about 4:30 p.m. (3:30 p.m. British time) on Tuesday on a mountain road 10 km (6 miles) south of Salzburg.
The bus, carrying 48 passengers, landed on its roof and rescuers had to cut many of the passengers out of the wreckage.
The cause of the accident was not yet known.
A spokeswoman for tour operator Inghams said those injured in the crash were being flown back to Britain on Wednesday and arrangements were being made to fly relatives to Austria.
"Our thoughts are with those who were involved in the accident and we wish to extend our deepest sympathies to them and their families", the spokeswoman said in a statement read to reporters in London.
Of the 48 passengers, 42 were British, two were Russians and two were Germans, a police spokesman said on Tuesday.
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The Foreign Office has set up a 24-hour emergency number for members of the public to contact if they think they may have had friends or relatives involved in the crash.
The number is 020 7008 0000.
A hotline opened by Inghams (the tour operator) can be reached on 020 8780 6600.
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