A bus coach crashes in Austria, killing a woman and injuring 20 others

BERLIN (AP) — A bus coach traveling through Austria on Tuesday went off the road and crashed on its side, killing a woman and injuring 20 other passengers, Austria’s APA agency reported.

The accident took place near the village of Micheldorf in Carinthia state in central Austria. The coach was on its way from Berlin via Linz in Austria to Trieste in northern Italy, Austrian broadcaster ORF reported.

Passengers on the double-decker bus included citizens from Austria, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Italy and Ukraine, APA reported.

The woman who died was a 19-year-old Austrian, APA reported.

Most of the injured were taken to a hospital in Friesach, and one seriously injured — a 25-year-old German woman — was transferred to a hospital in Klagenfurt.

According to the Red Cross, the bus probably hit a concrete guardrail and overturned, APA reported.

Fifty-five emergency staffers belonging to several local fire departments were involved in the rescue operation.

The Althofen fire department said that numerous passengers, including injured people, were still in the bus when the rescuers arrived. Three people had to be freed from the vehicle by using hydraulic equipment. The remaining passengers were helped out of the overturned bus by the rescuers using ladders, APA reported.