Lisbon’s funicular clash kills at least 15 people when the popular tram is derailing

Fifteen people died and 18 were injured after a funicular tram derailed and crashed in Lisbon, Portugal, the authorities said Wednesday.

The accident took place in a popular tram line called Elevator da Gloria, a milestone located in the center of Lisbon already often visited by tourists. It opened in 1885.

Five of the injured are in serious condition, and a child is among the injured, said the National Medical Emergencies Institute in a statement. Officials have not published the victims’ nationalities.

The cause of the accident is still clear. The authorities called him an accident, the worst in the recent history of the city.

The mayor of Lisbon, Carlos Moedas, said in a publication on social networks that the city “is mourning.”

“The Council of the City of Lisbon decrees three days of municipal mourning for the victims of the tragic accident in the Funicular de Gloria,” said Moedas. “I extend my most sincere condolences to all the families and friends of the victims. Lisbon is mourning.”

The yellow and white tram, which goes up and down by a steep hill in the center in conjunction with one on the opposite road, was on the side of the narrow road that travels.

His sides and above were partially wrinkled, and seemed to have crashed in a building where the road is folded. Several dozen emergency workers were in the place, but most retired after about two hours.

Eye witnesses told the local media that the tram raised by the hill, apparently out of control. Carris, the company that operates the tram, said the scheduled maintenance had been carried out.

The office of the Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said in a statement that the president “deeply regrets the accident” and expressed “his condolence and solidarity with the families affected by this tragedy.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

• Portugal