At least 15 dead, more than a dozen injured, in a funicular accident in Lisbon

At least 15 people died and about 18 years old were injured on Wednesday when the Gloria funicular railroad from Lisbon – popular with tourists and one of the city symbols – derailed and crashed, said a spokesperson for emergency medical services.

The authorities did not identify the victims or disclosed their nationalities, but said that some foreign nationals were one of the dead. Five people were seriously injured, the spokesman said.

Global Affairs Canada told CBC News that he was “not aware of Canadian citizens affected by this incident”.

Eyewitness told local media that the tram was rushing to the hill in the Portuguese capital, apparently out of control. A witness said that he had overturned a man on a sidewalk.

“It is a tragic day for our city … Lisbon is in mourning; it is a tragic and tragic incident,” said the mayor of the city, Carlos Moedas.

Images of the site have shown the tram -shaped funicular, which makes people from top to bottom in Lisbon, destroyed, and emergency workers leaving people from the wreckage.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa deplored the tragic accident in a statement, expressing the authorities to hope soon to establish what caused the accident.

The Lisbon municipal council suspended the operations of other trams and ordered immediate inspections, local media reported.

Day of mourning to observe

The government of Portugal announced that a national mourning day is observed on Thursday.

The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen also sent her condolences. “It was with sadness that I learned the derailment of the famous Elevad da Gloria,” she wrote in Portuguese on X.

Police investigators inspected the Site and the Office of the Attorney General said that he would open an official investigation, as well as public transport accidents.

The line, which opened in 1885, linked the downtown Lisbon near the Place de la Restaurades with the Bairro Alto (upper district), famous for its dynamic nightlife.

Tram used by tourists and inhabitants

This is one of the three funicular lines operated by the Municipal Public Transport Company Carris and is used by tourists and local residents.

Carris said in a statement that “all maintenance protocols had been made”, including monthly and weekly maintenance programs and daily inspections.

The Gloria line carries around three million people a year, according to the town hall.

Its two cars, each capable of transporting around 40 people, are attached to the opposite ends of a transport cable, with a traction provided by electric motors on the two cars.

Portugal – and Lisbon in particular – have experienced a tourist boom in the last decade, visitors pile up the popular city center during the summer months.

A spokesman for the British Foreign Affairs, the Commonwealth and Development said that she was in contact with the local authorities and was held “to provide consular assistance if there were affected British nationals”.

Great Britain is the greatest source of tourism in Portugal, followed by Germany, Spain and the United States.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X that he was “dismayed by the terrible accident”, while Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote that he had met the Portuguese Minister for Foreign Affairs and expressed his “solidarity with the victims”.

The United States Embassy in Lisbon also offered its “largest condolences to all keys”, according to an article on X.