Four people died and 45 were injured when a Czech tourist coach crashed near Schrems in Lower Austria Sunday morning.

The coach's passengers were 47 clients and employees of the social care institute from Stod, west Bohemia, who were heading for a seaside stay in Croatia. Besides, two drivers and the owner of the travel agency were aboard.

Only one person escaped unscathed from the crash.

The cause of the tragedy is not yet known.

Twenty-one firefighter vehicles, 41 ambulances and two helicopters assisted on the spot of the accident.

Czech PM Mirek Topolanek has expressed his sympathy to the victims' families and to the injured. He regularly follows information about latter's health condition, provided to him by Czech diplomats, government spokesman Martin Schmarcz told CTK.

According to Austrian Red Cross, the state of the injured has been stabilized. They have been taken to eight hospitals in Austria, and two patients have been transferred to the hospital in Ceske Budejovice, south Bohemia.

(Xinhua News Agency September 18, 2006)