Quick-thinking bus passenger narrowly stops mountain tragedy

A quick-thinking tourist prevented a bus from plunging over a cliff edge in the Austrian Alps after the driver lost consciousness at the wheel.

The vehicle, carrying 21 passengers, was passing through the mountains in the Tyrolean Alps when the driver, 76, fainted, according to local police.

As the bus travelled downhill towards the cliff’s edge, the French tourist was able to climb over the driver and hit the brakes.

Before it could be stopped, the bus gathered speed and repeatedly banged into the mountainside lining the road.

The vehicle came to a grinding halt only before its front end was jutting over the edge of a 330-foot drop.

Four people were rushed to hospital following the shocking incident, and 10 in total needed treatment, police said.

The Frenchman, 65, was sitting close to the driver when he fell ill, the BBC reported.

"We were a hair's breadth from catastrophe," a local police spokesman said.