Portugal in mourning after deadly derailment

By Catherine Nicholls, CNN

(CNN) — At least 16 people were killed and several injured after the carriage of a funicular – a type of railway that travels up and down steep slopes – derailed in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon on Wednesday evening.

Authorities are still investigating exactly what caused the disaster, which has left the city in shock and the nation in three days of mourning.

Here’s what we know about the tragedy so far:

What do we know about the incident?

The historic Gloria funicular crashed just after 6 p.m. on Wednesday evening local time (1 p.m. ET), according to CNN’s affiliate CNN Portugal.

Eyewitnesses reported seeing one of the railway’s two cars derailing and careening down the street before hitting a building. One man, whose first name is Bruno, told CNN Portugal that the funicular car was “completely out of control.”
“It looked like a toy being thrown from one side of the Glória pavement to the other. I heard screams and then, suddenly, a loud bang,” he said. “You couldn’t hear people anymore and a cloud of brown smoke appeared.”
Another man, a local resident who has lived in the area for 50 years, told CNN Portugal that the funicular had smelled unusual and was making strange noises before the tragedy occurred.

Video of the aftermath of the crash shows emergency vehicles lining Calçada da Glória, the narrow street that the funicular operated on. The wrecked rail carriage is seen lying in the street, with warped sheets of metal hanging off its frame.

Local authorities say that it is too early to determine the cause of the incident, but the Lisbon Firefighters Regiment reported that a cable had detached along the line, causing the funicular to lose control, according to local newspaper Observador.

Who are the victims?

Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said Thursday afternoon that 16 people had died in the accident. Authorities had previously said that 17 people had been killed.

Five Portuguese citizens, two South Koreans, and one Swiss national are among the victims authorities have been able to fully identify so far, according to Luís Neves, head of Portugal’s Criminal Police.

A US State Department spokesperson told CNN in an email that it can confirm that a US citizen died in the derailment, and that the American embassy in Lisbon is “working closely with local authorities to assist U.S. citizens in the affected area.”

Portuguese public hospitals received 23 injured people from the accident, Álvaro Almeida, Executive Director of the National Health Service, told reporters at the same press conference. One of the seriously injured victims “ultimately passed away,” the health official said. That victim has not yet been identified.

Those with minor injuries include people from Cape Verde, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, Israel, Morocco, Italy and France, added Almeida.

Germany’s foreign office said in a statement that its embassy in Lisbon is in close contact with local authorities. Meanwhile, a source at Spain’s foreign ministry told CNN that the Spanish nationals involved in the incident have already left the hospital.

An Italian woman who was traveling on the opposite funicular carriageat the time of the accident told local Italian media that she was shocked by what happened.

Stefania Lepidi told Corriere della Sera that the car she was riding in fell backwards, stopping at a concrete block at the end of the tracks.

Her arm was broken in the crash, but Lepidi noted that her fate could have been very different if she was in the other streetcar.

“We all walked out of the carriage on our own two feet. The other carriage was full of dead people,” she said, according to the newspaper.

The youngest person injured was three years old, with the oldest being 65, Castro Martins said.

Sitra, a Portuguese transport worker’s union, said late Wednesday night that André Jorge Gonçalves Marques, a brake guard who worked for the funicular’s operator CARRIS, died in the crash. CARRIS confirmed his death, writing in a statement that Marques was a “dedicated, friendly, smiling professional and always willing to contribute to the greater good.”

The identities of the other victims are yet to be announced publicly.

What is a funicular?

According to the University of Southern California’s Illumin Magazine, funiculars use a counterweight pulley system to generate kinetic energy, so that when one car of a funicular descends, the other car can ascend.

Simplistically, a funicular can be thought of as a hybrid between an elevator and a train, the magazine says. They are most commonly used to transport people and cargo up steep inclines.

Funiculars can be found in cities around the world, including Istanbul, Tokyo, Barcelona, Stockholm and Budapest. The Peak Tram in Hong Kong was the first of its kind to be introduced to Asia in 1888, according to the territory’s tourism board.

What do we know about the Gloria funicular?

Lisbon’s Elevador da Glória is one of three funiculars in the city. It was opened in 1885 and electrified in 1915, according to Lisbon’s tourism board.

The railway travels around 870 feet (265 meters) up and down the “very steep” Calçada da Glória, according to CARRIS, the funicular’s operator.

On weekdays, it is scheduled to run up to 87 times a day, a schedule on CARRIS’ website shows. Journeys are available between 7 a.m. and midnight, and last roughly three minutes. Two rides on the Gloria funicular cost €4.20 ($4.89).

The railway is used by locals and tourists alike to climb the steep, cobblestoned street, and leads to a scenic observation point that offers views of the city.

In May, the funicular was closed for four days for maintenance work, an update on CARRIS’ website says.

On Wednesday, the operator said that it “regrets the existence of casualties and is following the situation,” adding that “all maintenance protocols were carried out and complied with.”

CARRIS has opened an investigation alongside authorities to determine the cause of the accident, it said.

What happens next?

Investigations into the cause of the incident are underway, Carlos Moedas, the mayor of Lisbon, told reporters on Thursday afternoon.

The city’s two other funiculars have been suspended, he added.

Meanwhile, three days of mourning have been declared across Portugal. Events including a free open-air concert have been postponed, the city’s cultural board said on social media.

By Thursday, passersby had created a makeshift memorial just beyond the Calçada da Glória, leaving bouquets of flowers under barricade tape set up by emergency workers.

The European Parliament lowered its flags to half-mast in solidarity with Portugal, the parliament’s president, Roberta Metsola, said on social media Thursday.

“The tragic accident on the Elevador da Glória has shaken Europe deeply,” she said.

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