Its sides and top were partially crumpled, and it appeared to have crashed into a building at a bend in the road. Several dozen emergency workers were at the scene, but most stood down after about two hours.
Eyewitnesses told local media the streetcar careened down the hill. One witness said the streetcar toppled onto a man on the pavement.
“It hit the building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box,” Teresa d’Avó told Portuguese TV channel SIC.
Emergency teams work at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon on Wednesday.Credit: AP
Firefighters carrying a person on a stretcher after the crash.Credit: AP
Portugal’s government announced that a day of national mourning would be observed on Thursday. “A tragic accident … caused the irreparable loss of human life, which left in mourning their families and dismayed the whole country,” the government said in a statement.
Lisbon’s City Council suspended operations of other streetcars in the city and ordered immediate inspections, local media reported.
Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas told reporters at the scene that the city was in mourning. “This was a tragic accident … It’s a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen.”
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa offered his condolences to families affected by the tragedy.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also sent her condolences. “It is with sadness that I learnt of the derailment of the famous Elevador da Gloria,” she wrote in Portuguese on X.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X that he was “appalled by the terrible accident”, while Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote that he had met with the Portuguese foreign minister and expressed his “solidarity with the victims”.
The US embassy in Lisbon also offered its “deepest condolences to all affected”, according to a post on X.
Lisbon’s Gloria funicular in April 2024. Credit: Alamy Stock Photo
The cause of the crash is not immediately known.Credit: AP
The cause of the accident was not immediately known. However, news reports from The New York Times and Portuguese site Observador indicated that one of the cables holding the tram may have snapped.
The government said there would be an investigation into the cause of the incident, which reportedly occurred at the start of the evening rush hour, at about 6pm Lisbon time.
Carris, the company that operates the streetcar, said scheduled maintenance had been carried out. It offered its deepest condolences to the victims and their families in a social media post and promised that all due diligence would be taken in finding the causes of the accident.
SITRA, a trade union, wrote in a post on social media that one of its members died in the accident.
The Gloria line connects Lisbon’s downtown area near the Restauradores Square with the Bairro Alto (Upper Quarter), famous for its vibrant nightlife.
It is one of three funicular lines operated by Carris and is popular with both tourists and residents.
Onlookers at the derailment site. Credit: Getty Images
Known in Portugal as the Elevador da Gloria, the funicular is powered by electric motors, with two streetcars running parallel to each other as they shuttle up and down the hill on a curved, traffic-free road for a few hundred metres.
The car at the bottom of the line was apparently undamaged, but video from bystanders aired by CNN Portugal showed it jolting violently when the other one derailed, with several of its passengers jumping from its windows and people shouting.
Lisbon hosted about 8.5 million tourists last year, with the streetcars among the city’s most popular attractions. Long lines of tourists typically form for a brief ride on it. The Gloria line transports about 3 million people annually, and is also popular with Lisbon residents.
The streetcars can carry more than 40 people at a time, seated and standing. The line opened in 1885 and is classified as a national monument.
AP, Reuters
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