One dead, 13 hurt as bus full of tourists crashes in NZ

One person is dead and 13 others have been rushed to New Zealand hospitals after a bus carrying international tourists collided with two other vehicles on a rural highway.

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

The cause of the three-vehicle collision was not known. It happened on a straight stretch of highway during good weather conditions.

New Zealand's police confirmed a small bus carrying 11 international tourists and their driver was involved in the crash. There were three people in the other two vehicles.

Officials would not say what countries the tourists were from, or which vehicle the person who died was travelling in. The injured people were transported to hospitals across the North Island air and road, according to St John Ambulance.

The road is closed at the crash site, on a rural highway 50km from the city of Hamilton.

Tourist buses have been involved in fatal crashes on NZ's state highways, which are often narrow and winding, before. In one of the worst episodes, a bus flipped in rainy conditions north of Rotorua on the North Island in 2019, killing five tourists from China.

In 2008, eight tourists and their driver were killed when their bus hit a logging truck.