“ I missed the funicular route of Lisbon who killed my friend ”

While Sonia Silva was preparing to leave work on Wednesday evening, a colleague asked by a colleague to help a quick task.

This meant that she was missing her regular funicular journey at the bottom of the hill with a work friend at the office house in the center of Lisbon.

When she arrived at the stop a short time later, the funicular crashed and her friend was dead.

“When I arrived, it was a tragedy,” she said.

Sixteen people were killed Wednesday evening in Lisbon on Wednesday evening when its emblematic Glória Funicular, 140, derailed and crashed in a building. The Portuguese Prime Minister described it as “one of the greatest human tragedies in our recent history”.

Many of those who were killed were foreign nationals, including three British whose identities have not yet been announced. According to police, five killed was Portuguese – and four of them worked in the charitable organization of Santa Casa Da Misericórdia, located at the top of the hill.

A service took place on Friday in a church next to the headquarters of the charitable organization, honoring workers killed in the accident. The service was crowded, people filling the aisles and any other space available.

Leaving, colleagues cried and supported each other when they were trying to understand what had happened. Several have told the BBC that they regularly used the funicular as part of their journey.

Sitting on an outside bench, Sonia said she had worked on the charitable organization for eight years and had used the funicular every day.

“I cannot express (what I feel)-it’s very difficult. I am grateful but at the same time I am very, very angry because my colleagues and many people are dead,” she said.

She said that she would go to work every day and to work with her colleague Sandra Coelho.

“I loved her very much because I always took the funicular with her-going home and in the morning. It is very difficult because I will not see her anymore,” she said through tears, as colleagues comforted her.

During their journey, she said that the two women chatted and would talk about their days.

“We were talking about colleagues, work, everything. We met in the morning and when we have finished,” she said.

Others around the church also cried the loss of friends and tried to deal with what had happened.

“It’s horrible, we are devastated. It is difficult to work at the moment,” said Lord Henriques.

“We always think of our colleagues and we wonder” have they suffered? “They could be here with us now.

“It could have been any of us – we all used this type of transport and we felt very confident,” said Tania, another worker from the charity.

Rui Franco, a municipal councilor including the close friend and former colleague Alda Matias was killed in the accident on Wednesday, said that he was in shock.

“She had a question of my age. She had a family, children and I cannot imagine if it was me what would happen to my family. She was a great person … With a very solid way to act in the world,” he said.

Mr. Franco said he was “already angry” when he learned the fatal accident for the first time “, then when I understood that I knew the people involved, the rage (become) overwhelming”.

Although an investigation into the cause of the accident was underway, there was a lot of speculation among the mourning people.

“He was still overcrowded,” said one of them, while another blamed bad interview.

The head of the rail workers’ union, Fectrans, said that some workers complained that cable tension problems that cause cars had made braking difficult.

“Even the planes sometimes fall from the sky. Accidents occur,” said another woman.

Many told the BBC whatever the cause, they could not imagine using the funicular again.

“I told everyone that I will no longer use it,” said Sonia before returning to the office, flanked by work friends.