Lisbon funicular crash kills at least 15 people when popular streetcar derails

Fifteen people were killed and 18 were injured after a funicular streetcar derailed and crashed in Lisbon, Portugal, authorities said Wednesday. 

The crash took place on a popular streetcar line called the Elevador da Glória, a landmark located in central Lisbon and often visited by tourists. It opened in 1885. 

Five of the injured are in serious condition, and a child is among the injured, the National Institute for Medical Emergencies said in a statement. Officials have not released the nationalities of the victims. 

The cause of the crash remains unclear. Authorities called it an accident, the worst in the city’s recent history.

Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas said in a social media post that the city “is in mourning.” 

“The Lisbon City Council decrees three days of Municipal Mourning for the victims of the tragic accident at the Glória Funicular,” Moedas said. “I extend my heartfelt condolences to all the families and friends of the victims. Lisbon is in mourning.”

The yellow-and-white streetcar, which goes up and down a steep downtown hill in tandem with one going the opposite way, was lying on its side on the narrow road that it travels along.

Its sides and top were partially crumpled, and it appeared to have crashed into a building where the road bends. Several dozen emergency workers were at the scene, but most stood down after about two hours.

Eyewitnesses told local media that the streetcar careened down the hill, apparently out of control. Carris, the company that operates the streetcar, said scheduled maintenance had been carried out.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa’s office said in a statement that the president “deeply regrets the accident” and expressed “his condolences and solidarity with the families affected by this tragedy.”

This is a developing story and will be updated. 

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Kierra Frazier is a news editor for CBS News & Stations.

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