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Portugal declares national day of mourning to remember people killed in funicular crash
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At least 17 people have died after Lisbon‘s Gloria funicular railway derailed and crashed into a building, also leaving at least 23 people injured, authorities said.
Footage on Wednesday evening showed the tram-like funicular, which carries people up and down a hillside in the Portuguese capital, practically destroyed and emergency workers pulling people out of the wreckage.
Authorities would not identify the victims or disclose their nationalities, but said some foreign nationals were among the dead.
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa reacted to the tragic incident in a statement, expressing hope that authorities would soon establish what caused the crash, which happened on Wednesday at around 6pm.
Initial reports suggest the cable for the funicular came loose.
The system’s two cars, each capable of carrying around 40 people, run parallel to each other as they shuttle up and down the hill on a curved, traffic-free road. They are harnessed by steel cables.
The railway, which opened in 1885, is operated by the municipal public transport company Carris. On Wednesday night, it said “all maintenance protocols had been carried out”, including monthly and weekly maintenance programs and daily inspections.
The crash is thought to have involved at least 38 people from 10 nationalities, the head of Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency is cited as saying by local media.
Of the 17 people killed, seven men and eight women died at the scene, all adults, Observador reported. The gender of two people died overnight in hospital is not yet known.
Seven of the people injured are in serious condition. At least 12 of the people injured are women and seven are men, aged between 24 and 65, including a 3-year-old child.
So far, it is believed the foreign nationals involved are from Germany, Spain, Korea, Cape Verde, Canada, Italy, France, Switzerland and Morocco.
The European Parliament is flying its flags at half-mast in Brussels, Strasbourg, and Lisbon, according to Lusa.
The gesture marks Portugal’s national day of mourning.
Portuguese transport union Sitra has named a man who worked for Carris as one of the 15 people who died in the crash.
Sitra said André Jorge Gonçalves Marques, who worked as a brake guard, died in Wednesday’s crash.
“We also send our condolences to the families and friends of the victims of the accident and wish them a speedy recovery as well as the best recovery to the others injured in the accident,” Sitra said in a post on Facebook.
Police have not yet confirmed the identities of the victims.
The death toll in the Lisbon streetcar crash has now risen to 17, an emergency services official said.
Two of the injured died overnight in a hospital, Margarida Castro Martins, head of Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency, told reporters.
An injured victim of the crash has died overnight after been taken to the Hospital de São José, according to Lusa news agency.
The latest death brings the death toll of the incident to 16.
It brings the death toll of the incident to 16.
At least 23 people were injured, local media reported police as saying.
The number of people injured has risen from 18 to at least 23, according to police.
At least 15 people have been killed in the crash.
Forensic pathologists worked overnight on autopsies, officials said.
The Order of Engineers has provided technical support to determine the causes of the accident, according to Lusa.
The organisation is the official professional body for engineers in Portugal.
The Portuguese Institute of Blood has reinforced the blood reserves of hospitals that responded to victims in the crash.
It has also activated a contingency plan, Lusa reports.
Portugal’s public prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the causes of the crash, national news agency Lusa reports.
“As is customary in these types of situations and as required by law,” the attorney general’s office said.
The investigation is separate to one carried out by public transport company Carris.
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