Plumes of thick black smoke are reaching high into the sky. Photo / Facebook
Plumes of thick black smoke are reaching high into the sky. Photo / Facebook
A man lay trapped, screaming for help in the crushed wreck of his car after it and a bus collided on a popular tourist route. Minutes later, the car burst into flames, with the man still inside.
Police say no one could be pulled from the car, and aside fromthe man pleading for help, they have no idea how many others were in the vehicle after the collision on the Te Anau-Milford Highway in Southland.
Photos from the scene show the car was overturned and completely crushed by the bus. The bus door was wedged shut and the 16 passengers, all believed to be from Korea, were helped out of a window.
Later photos show plumes of thick black smoke billowing into the sky, with both the bus and car completely engulfed in flames. Miraculously, all the bus passengers, the driver and tour guide appear to have escaped out a window before the fire.
Invercargill's Jakob Frazer, 17, arrived on the scene with a colleague moments after the accident happened. He said he saw an arm coming out of the passenger door, and a man was screaming for help.
He helped those around him before trying to help the car's driver. Frazer believed the occupant was male and that he may have been foreign, as he had an accent.
When he arrived the car and bus were not on fire. But after about 10 minutes smoke started coming from the car. Attempts to put the fire out with an extinguisher were unsuccessful and within minutes both car and bus were in flames, he said.
Police could not confirm last night how many occupants were in the car or who they might be. Due to the extent of the fire they were unable to search the car for occupants.
Fire Service southern communications centre shift manager Riwai Grace said both vehicles were "fully involved".
Police, ambulance staff and firefighters from the Te Anau brigade helped at the scene, he said.
The crash happened on State Highway 94, Te Anau Downs, at 2.55pm.
Police said the injured were taken to a medical centre in Te Anau and the bus passengers were picked up by other coach operators.
Explorer Tourlines owner Stephen Cook confirmed one of his buses was involved in the crash and said all 16 passengers plus the tour guide and driver had made it off safely.
The tourists onboard were from Korea. The bus was returning to Queenstown from Milford Sound when the crash happened.
The driver had been with the company for four years. Cook was unable to comment on what caused the crash.
"The matter is in the hands of police now . . . As it develops we will know what happens, but we don't actually know what happened.
"I'm sorry we just don't have any information - it's a very recent occurrence."
