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The death toll in the crash of a famous Lisbon streetcar popular with tourists rose to 17 Thursday after two of the 23 injured people died, an emergency services official said.
The dead were all adults, Margarida Castro Martins, head of Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency, told reporters. She didn’t provide their names or nationalities, saying that their families would be informed first.
Though authorities gave no details about those killed, the transport workers’ trade union SITRA said that the streetcar’s brakeman, Andre Marques, was among the dead.
Emergency services and investigators continue to comb through the scene after Lisbon’s famed Gloria funicular railway car derailed and crashed on Wednesday. At least 15 people died and more than a dozen were injured at one of the Portuguese capital’s most popular tourist spots.
Another 21 people were injured in Wednesday’s crash, she said. They included Portuguese people as well as two Germans, two Spaniards and one person each from France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Morocco, South Korea and Cape Verde, she said.
CBC News has reached out to Global Affairs Canada for more information. GAC late Wednesday had said it was unaware of any Canadians impacted by the incident.
‘Fell apart like a cardboard box’
Officials did not immediately provide a cause of the crash.
Portugal’s government announced that a day of national mourning would be observed on Thursday.
The range of nationalities reflected how big a draw the renowned streetcar was for tourists who are packing the Portuguese capital during the summer season.
The Elevador da Gloria 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.
“It hit the building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box,” Teresa d’Avó told Portuguese TV channel SIC.
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 in the Portuguese capital, apparently out of control. One witness said it toppled onto a man on a sidewalk.
Carris, the company that operates the car, said scheduled maintenance had been carried out. It offered its deepest condolences to the victims and their families in a social media post, and promised that all due diligence would be taken in finding the causes of the accident.
Lisbon’s city council suspended operations of other streetcars and ordered immediate inspections, local media reported.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X that he was “appalled by the terrible accident.”
“It’s a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen,” said Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas.
The crash reportedly occurred at the start of the evening rush hour, around 6 p.m. local time. Emergency officials said all victims were pulled out of the wreckage in just over two hours.
An investigation into the causes will begin once the rescue operation is over, the government said.
SITRA, a trade union, wrote in a post on social media that one of its members died in the accident.
Tram used by tourists and locals alike
The line, which opened in 1885, connects Lisbon’s downtown area near the Restauradores Square with the Bairro Alto (Upper Quarter), famous for its vibrant nightlife.
It is one of three funicular lines operated by the municipal public transport company Carris and is used by tourists and local residents.
The Gloria line transports around three million people annually, according to the town hall.
Its two cars, each capable of carrying around 40 people, are attached to opposite ends of a haulage cable, with traction provided by electric motors on the two cars.
Portugal — and Lisbon in particular — has experienced a tourism boom in the past decade, with visitors cramming the popular downtown area in the summer months.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen 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.
The U.S. Embassy in Lisbon also offered its “deepest condolences to all affected,” according to a post on X.