Seven people, including two Argentine women, have been killed and 33 more injured after an accident involving a coach in eastern Cuba, local media reported on Friday.
A Frenchman and a German woman were also among the four tourists killed in the accident, along with three Cubans, the Venceremos newspaper said.
The Argentines were identified as two 35-year-old women, Roxana Lauseda Gómez and Nadis Carolina Flores.
Two other Argentines were also listed as injured, Daniela Mateuchi, 29, and Constantino Ziekeridis, 27.
Local reports named the other deceased foreigners as 67-year-old Patrick Demer Tesseran and 59-year-old Annegret Frieda Gohike. In addition to the dead, three Cubans and two foreigners – 42-year-old Spaniard Felicita Hurtado and French woman Marline Alphonse, 63 – were said to be in a serious condition.
"Of the 40 passengers, 22 were foreigners from countries like Holland, England, France, Mexico and Canada," said Venceremos.
The coach overturned while driving on the road linking the city of Baracoa, near Cuba's eastern tip, to the capital Havana.
The driver said he lost control of the coach due to a wet road, claiming to have been driving slowly, the newspaper reported.
However, it said witnesses said the driver had been attempting to overtake another vehicle when he found himself face to face with oncoming traffic, causing him to swerve off the road.
According to official statistics, there were 11,187 road accidents in 2017 that left 750 people dead and 7,999 injured from a population of 11.1 million.
- TIMES/AFP
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