Portuguese authorities have declared three days of mourning after Lisbon’s iconic Gloria funicular crashed, killing 17 people and injuring 23.
One of the carriages on the tram-like railway derailed and crashed during evening rush hour on Wednesday.
As emergency services worked to pull people from the wreckage, the city’s mayor, Carlos Moedas, declared it an unprecedented tragedy. Here is what we know so far.
What happened?
The Gloria funicular, a national monument hugely popular with tourists, was operating as usual between Restauradores Square in downtown Lisbon and the Bairro Alto neighbourhood on Wednesday evening.
The journey is just 265m (870ft) and takes three minutes but operates up a steep hill, with two carriages travelling in opposite directions.
At around 6pm, the top car reportedly hurtled down the hill before leaving the tracks and crashing into a building 30m (98ft) from the bottom of the line.
The wreckage of one of the two carriages of the Gloria funicular. Pic: AP
The remains of the funicular carriage that derailed. Pic: Reuters
According to the people who were in the bottom carriage, a few metres into their ascent, it started going backwards. When they saw the other car speeding towards them, they jumped through the windows to escape.
Swiss tourist Rasha Abdul told Sky’s Europe correspondent Alistair Bunkall her husband escaped first, allowing her to pass their three-year-old son to him before she got out and the top car crashed just metres from them.
“We were afraid it would crash with us – the fact that it crashed there [on the corner] rescued us,” she said. “When I went out, everything was dusty and blurry.”
Swiss holidaymaker Rasha Abdul
What caused it to derail?
It is not clear what caused the funicular to malfunction and derail.
The New York Times reported the Lisbon Firefighters Regiment saying it happened as a result of a “cable that came loose”. But officials have refused to be drawn on witness speculation that the funicular’s brakes were faulty.
According to Carris, the company that runs the railway, scheduled maintenance had been carried out.
Engineer Dave Cooper told Sky News local investigators need to establish why the two carriages “parted company”.
“The very fact that you can see both cars in the same news shot tells you there’s something wrong because while one is at the bottom, the other should be at the top,” the chairman of the British Standards Committee for Cableways told presenter Gareth Barlow.
He said the two cars may have become detached because of a fault with the cables or the point they connect to the carriages.
Emergency services work at the scene on Wednesday. Pic: Reuters
Describing what likely happened, he added: “That top car has lost suspension. Then what appears to have happened is it comes careering down the hill and has gone quite a distance to get to where it’s got to.
“It comes to a bend and the rails want it to go round that bend but it’s careering away and strikes the building.”
The situation will have likely been made worse by the fact that the carriage was at full capacity – weighing up to 14 tonnes in total, Mr Cooper said.
Who are the victims?
On Thursday morning, Portugal’s civil protection authority said 17 people died in the crash and 23 were injured.
All of those killed were adults – eight women and seven men, it said. The details of two further victims who died of their injuries in hospital on Thursday morning have not been revealed.
Only one of the dead has been named so far. Transport workers’ union SITRA said Andre Marques died on Wednesday as a result of the crash.
The crashed carriage on its side at the scene on Thursday morning. Pic: Reuters
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Those injured include 12 women and seven men between the ages of 25 and 65 and a three-year-old child, the Civil Protection authority said.
The nationalities of 15 of them have been revealed and include three people from Portugal, two from Germany, one from Spain, one from South Korea, one from Cape Verde, one from Canada, one from Italy, one from France, one from Switzerland, and one from Morocco.
According to CNN Portugfal, the two from Germany were the three-year-old boy and his mother, who were both pulled from the wreckage.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it is “aware of the incident” and “in touch with the local authorities”.
“We stand by to provide consular assistance if there are any affected British nationals,” a spokesperson said in a statement.
A map shows the location of the Gloria funicular in Lisbon
What have officials said so far?
Lisbon mayor, Mr Moedas, declared three days of mourning in the city.
“I extend my heartfelt condolences to all the families and friends of the victims. Lisbon is in mourning,” he said.
He described the incident to Portuguese news site Diario de Noticias as a “tragedy that has never happened in our city”.
“The moment is for action and help. I thank you all for the response in a few minutes. The only thing I can say is that it is a very tragic day,” he added.
A member of the Civil Protection authority gives a news conference near the crash site on Thursday morning. Pic: Reuters
President of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen posted on X: “It is with sadness that I learned of the derailment of the famous ‘Elevador da Gloria’. My condolences to the families of the victims.”
Portugal’s defence minister Nuno Melo said: “The accident in Lisbon with the Gloria elevator was a tragedy that caused strong commotion and consternation in Portugal and in the world… I express all my solidarity and offer heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.”
This story originally appeared on Skynews
