The white bus overturned in a residential area in the coastal town of Canico, its mayor, Filipe Sousa, told reporters. TV images showed the vehicle on its side on a bank next to a narrow road and surrounded by rescuers.

"I have no words to describe what happened. I cannot face the suffering of these people," Sousa told SIC TV.

He said the tourists in the bus were all German but some pedestrians might have been hit by the bus.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa told SIC TV that some of the victims were from Madeira but most were German.