{"id":397064,"date":"2025-09-04T11:03:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T11:03:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/397064\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T11:03:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T11:03:10","slug":"lisbon-funicular-crash-portugal-declares-day-of-mourning-as-death-toll-rises-to-17-portugal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/397064\/","title":{"rendered":"Lisbon funicular crash: Portugal declares day of mourning as death toll rises to 17 | Portugal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Portugal has declared a day of national mourning after at least 17 people were killed and 21 others injured when one of Lisbon\u2019s famous funicular cars derailed<\/a> and crashed into a building on Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n

Those killed on the Gl\u00f3ria funicular were all adults, according to Margarida Castro Martins, the head of the city\u2019s civil protection agency.<\/p>\n

She said the victims\u2019 families would be informed before any names or nationalities were released, but confirmed that those injured in the crash included Portuguese people as well as two Germans, two Spaniards and one person each from Canada, Cape Verde, France, Italy, Morocco, South Korea and Switzerland.<\/p>\n

Locator<\/a><\/p>\n

The injured people, three of whom were seriously hurt, were being treated in several hospitals in the Lisbon region. Two of the most badly injured victims died in hospital overnight, raising the initial death toll from 15 to 17.<\/p>\n

Teams of pathologists from the National Forensics Institute worked through the night on autopsies, officials said.<\/p>\n

Public prosecutors have launched an investigation into the cause of the crash, which happened just after 6pm on Wednesday as the evening rush hour began.<\/p>\n

Police officers inspect the site. Photograph: Armando Fran\u00e7a\/AP<\/p>\n

The Portuguese authorities also suspended Lisbon\u2019s three other funiculars for safety checks after the derailment.<\/p>\n

Known as the Elevador da Gl\u00f3ria, the well-known vehicle goes up and down a steep hill in central Lisbon in tandem with one going the opposite way.<\/p>\n

Footage showed the wreckage of the yellow-and-white car lying on its side in the narrow street it traverses. Its sides and top were crumpled, and it appeared to have crashed into a building where the road bends. Parts of the vehicle, made mostly of metal, were crushed.<\/p>\n

Floral tributes left at the scene. Photograph: Patr\u00edcia de Melo Moreira\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Witnesses told local media that the streetcar careened down the hill, apparently out of control. \u201cIt hit the building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box,\u201d Teresa d\u2019Av\u00f3 told the TV channel SIC.<\/p>\n

Another witness, Bruno Pereira, told CNN Portugal<\/a> that the car at the bottom of the hill had suddenly jerked off the track and on to the pavement, just before the other one came hurtling down, \u201cand struck the walls like a rock\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cA few seconds later, the other tram \u2013 which counterbalances this one \u2013 arrived, completely out of control, crashing into the walls, people screaming. It hit the last time at the curve between Cal\u00e7ada da Gl\u00f3ria and Rua da Gl\u00f3ria and stopped with a loud crash,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was panic. We all ran, everyone there. Some people tried to pull people out from under the tram \u2026 There were cobblestones everywhere, and the metal grooves, on which the car ran, were all popped out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police officers guard the area. Photograph: Armando Fran\u00e7a\/AP<\/p>\n

Lisbon\u2019s mayor, Carlos Moedas, who visited the scene shortly after news of the crash emerged, said the city was in mourning. \u201cThis is a tragedy that has never happened before in our city,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cNow is the time for action and help. I thank everyone for their response in just a few minutes. The only thing I can say is that it\u2019s a very tragic day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The government declared that Thursday would be a day of national mourning. A statement from the office of the prime minister, Lu\u00eds Montenegro, said the tragedy had \u201cbrought grief to \u2026 families and dismay to the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

The president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, lamented the crash and expressed hope that authorities would soon establish its cause.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up to This is Europe<\/p>\n

The most pressing stories and debates for Europeans \u2013 from identity to economics to the environment<\/p>\n

Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n

Lisbon\u2019s Gl\u00f3ria funicular tram before the crash. Photograph: Eye Ubiquitous\/Universal Images Group\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Gl\u00f3ria line, which carries about 3 million people annually, is one of three funicular lines operated by the municipal public transport company Carris, and is used by tourists as well as residents.<\/p>\n

Its two cars, each capable of carrying about 40 people, are attached to opposite ends of a haulage cable with traction provided by electric motors on the cars.<\/p>\n

Carris said \u201call maintenance protocols have been carried out\u201d, including monthly and weekly maintenance programmes and daily inspections.<\/p>\n

Lisbon\u2019s city council suspended operations of other streetcars and ordered immediate inspections, local media reported.<\/p>\n

The crash brought condolences from European political leaders. Pedro S\u00e1nchez, the prime minister of neighbouring Spain, said he was saddened by the \u201cterrible accident\u201d, adding: \u201cWe send all our love and solidarity to the families of the victims and to the Portuguese people at this difficult time. We also hope that those who have been injured will get better quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Antonio Tajani, Italy\u2019s foreign minister, expressed solidarity with the victims of the Lisbon crash. Photograph: Guglielmo Mangiapane\/Reuters<\/p>\n

Italy\u2019s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, said he had met his Portuguese counterpart and expressed his \u201csolidarity with the victims\u201d.<\/p>\n

The European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, expressed her sadness and offered her condolences to the families of the victims.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the UK\u2019s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said it was in touch with the local authorities and stood by \u201cto provide consular assistance if there are any affected British nationals\u201d.<\/p>\n

Portugal, and Lisbon in particular, has experienced a tourism boom in the past decade, with visitors cramming into the popular downtown area in the summer months.<\/p>\n

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Portugal has declared a day of national mourning after at least 17 people were killed and 21 others…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[748,393,4884,12,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-397064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115145697201597936","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}