Portuguese police have confirmed that three Britons were among the 16 people killed in Lisbon on Wednesday evening when a funicular streetcar derailed and plunged down a hill into a building. The accident on the Elevador da Glória also left 21 people injured, five of them in a serious condition.
In a statement on Friday morning, police said the dead included five Portuguese citizens, three Britons, two South Koreans, two Canadians, one American, one Ukrainian, one Swiss citizen and one French person. Police also said a German citizen thought to have died had been found alive in a hospital, while the German foreign ministry reported at least three German nationals were being treated in hospital.
The crash has been described by Portugal's prime minister, Luís Montenegro, as "one of the biggest tragedies in our recent history". A preliminary report from the government's air and rail accident investigation office is due on Friday, with investigators saying they have found no evidence of sabotage. Mechanical failures or maintenance issues remain among possible causes, according to the chief police investigator, Nelson Oliveira.
The leader of the Fectrans union, Manuel Leal, told local television that workers had complained about problems with the tension of the haulage cable, which had made braking difficult, but added it was too early to say if that had caused the crash. The operator, Carris, insisted all maintenance protocols had been followed, including daily inspections and a full maintenance programme last year for the streetcar, which has been in service since 1914.
Hundreds of people, including the prime minister, Portugal's president, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and Lisbon's mayor, Carlos Moedas, attended a solemn mass on Thursday evening. Moedas said there were no words to describe the city's pain, adding: "We're gathering all the information to determine who is responsible. The city needs answers."
