Lisbon’s famed streetcar crashes; 15 dead
LISBON, Portugal—A picturesque electric streetcar that is one of Lisbon’s big tourist attractions derailed and crashed on Wednesday, killing 15 people and injuring 18 others, emergency services said.
Five of the injured were in serious condition and a child was among the injured, the National Institute for Medical Emergencies said in a statement. An unknown number of foreigners were among the injured, it said.
Authorities called it an accident, the worst in the city’s recent history, and it cast a pall over Lisbon’s charm for the millions of foreign tourists who arrive every year.
Out of control
The yellow-and-white streetcar, which is known as Elevador da Gloria and 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 crumpled, and it appeared to have crashed into a building where the road bends. Parts of the vehicle, made mostly of metal, were crushed.
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. One witness said the streetcar toppled onto a man on a sidewalk.
Carris, the company that operates the streetcar, said scheduled maintenance had been carried out.
Day of mourning
Lisbon’s City Council suspended operations of other streetcars in the city and ordered immediate inspections, local media reported.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa offered his condolences to affected families, and Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas said the city was in mourning. “It’s a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen,” Moedas said.
‘Terrible accident’
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,” it said in a statement.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also sent her condolences. “It is with sadness that I learned of the derailment of the famous Elevador da Gloria,” she wrote in Portuguese on X.
