(Adds details, Italian tourists killed)

SANTO DOMINGO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - At least 18 people, including four Italians, died when two buses collided on Friday on a highway in the east of the Dominican Republic, an official said.

One of the buses plowed into the other, which was packed with foreign tourists and en route to the resort of Punta Cana, when it was hit while parked alongside the road, authorities and witnesses said.

The head of the Caribbean country's civil defense service, Gen. Luis Luna Paulino, confirmed the death toll and the number of Italians killed.

He said 17 people were injured in the accident, which occurred on the San Pedro de Macoris to La Romana highway. The injured were taken to two local hospitals while those with life-threatening injuries were ferried by helicopter to the Dario Contreras Hospital in the capital of Santo Domingo. (Reporting by Manuel Jimenez, Editing by Tom Brown)

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