Horror moment tourist bus carrying 53 passengers bursts into flames on motorway in Gran Canaria

A TOURIST bus carrying 53 passengers burst into flames on a motorway in Gran Canaria.

Firefighters spent 40 minutes putting the blaze out and evacuating passengers from the burning bus.

Shocking footage shows heavy black smoke rising into the sky on the Spanish island as other drivers watched in horror at the sight.

The GC-1 motorway near to Salobre in San Bartolomé de Tirajana was temporarily closed as the violent fire raged yesterday.

There are no current reports of injuries and all passengers are believed to to have been evacuated safely.

After the blaze was put out, firefighters continued to douse the bus with water to avoid it reigniting, while highways services cleared the road.

Footage from the aftermath shows a still smouldering and completely burnt-out shell of the bus.

Later scenes show the bus sitting on a sheet of foam produced by the fire extinguishers.

It is not known how the fire started.

It comes only days after another tourist coach packed with children plunged off a mountain road in Spain leaving 19 people injured.

The bus was en route to a popular national park in the northern Spanish region of Asturias when the horror accident happened.

Last week, two people were killed after a bus smashed into a ditch near Paris.

It's understood the bus was swerving out of the way of a car driving on the wrong side of the road when it crashed in the French capital.