One person is dead and 13 injured after a bus carrying foreign tourists crashed in New Zealand

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – One person is dead and 13 others have been taken to New Zealand hospitals after…

WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) – One person is dead and 13 others were taken to New Zealand hospitals after a bus carrying international tourists collided with two other vehicles on a rural highway Wednesday.

The ambulance service said two people were in a critical condition after a crash in the Waikato region of the North Island, with four others seriously injured and the rest moderately injured.

The cause of the three-vehicle collision is unknown. The incident occurred on a straight section of the highway in good weather.

Police in New Zealand confirmed that the accident involved a small bus carrying 11 international tourists and their driver. There were three people in the other two vehicles.

Officials would not say what country the tourists came from or what vehicle the deceased person was driving. According to St John Ambulance, the injured were taken to hospitals across the North Island.

The road is closed at the crash site on a rural highway 50 km (31 miles) from the city of Hamilton.

There have been fatal accidents on tour buses accidents on New Zealand state highwayswhich are often narrow and winding, earlier. In one of the worst episodes there is a bus overturned in wet conditions north of Rotorua on the North Island in 2019, killing five Chinese tourists.

In 2008, eight tourists and their driver died when their bus collided with a logging truck.