At least 13 people have been killed after a bus carrying elderly people collided with a car on a motorway in central Portugal.
The two vehicles broke through the security barriers of the motorway and plunged 20m down the embankment.
The rescue operation was made more difficult by the fact that the vehicles had ended up at the bottom of a ravine.
The exact circumstances leading to the crash, which happened at 8pm on the A-23 motorway south of Vila Velha do Rodao, are not immediately known.
The bus was carrying passengers from a university for the elderly in Castelo Branco back from a trip to Fatima.
It is not yet clear whether there are any Irish people involved.
