By The Associated Press
The derailment of a popular streetcar in Portugal’s capital killed 16 people and injured 21 others, emergency services said, in what officials are calling one of Lisbon’s worst tragedies in recent memory.
Here’s what to know:
Investigations underway
Official details about the crash in downtown Lisbon were still scant Thursday morning. Authorities called the derailment on Wednesday an accident, and the government said that various official investigations were underway.
“The city needs answers,” Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas said.
Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency said early Thursday the death toll had risen to 17. It later corrected that to 16, saying there was a lapse because of the duplication of available information.
Witnesses told local media that the streetcar appeared out of control as it careened down a hill at around 6 p.m. during the evening rush hour. One witness said that the streetcar toppled onto a man on a sidewalk.
The sides and top of the yellow-and-white streetcar, known as Elevador da Gloria, were crumpled and it appeared to have crashed into a building where the road bends.
Carris, the company that operates the streetcar, said that scheduled maintenance had been carried out.
Officials declined to speculate on whether a faulty brake or a snapped cable may have caused the derailment.
Death toll rises
Officials didn’t provide the names or nationalities of the dead, saying that their families would be informed first.
Another 21 people were injured in the crash, authorities said. They included Portuguese nationals as well as two Germans, two Spaniards and one person each from France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Morocco, South Korea and Cape Verde.
“It’s a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen,” Moedas said.
“This tragedy … goes beyond our borders,” Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said.
National grieving
Portugal was observing a day of national mourning 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.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also sent her condolences.
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140 years of service
The streetcar, technically called a funicular, is harnessed by steel cables, with the descending car helping with its weight to pull up the other one. It can carry more than 40 people, seated and standing. The service, up and down a hill on a curved, traffic-free road, was inaugurated in 1885.
It’s classified as a national monument, and it attracts many of the millions of tourists who visit Lisbon each year. People typically wait in long lines for the brief ride covering a few hundred meters.
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