LISBON: An electric streetcar that is one of Lisbon’s landmarks and a big draw for tourists derailed Wednesday, killing 15 people and injuring 18 others, emergency services said.
Five of the injured are in serious condition, and a child is among the injured, the National Institute for Medical Emergencies said in a statement. An unknown number of the injured are foreigners, it said.
Authorities called it an accident, the worst in the city’s recent history.
The yellow-and-white streetcar, which 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, Portuguese television channels showed.
Its sides and top were partially crumpled, and it appeared to have crashed into a building where the road bends. 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, apparently out of control.
Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas told reporters at the scene that the city was in mourning. “This was a tragic accident … It’s a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen.”
President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa offered his condolence to affected families.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also 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 cause of the accident was not immediately known. It reportedly occurred at the start of the evening rush hour, around 6 p.m.
An investigation into the causes will begin once the rescue operation is over, the Portuguese government said in a statement.
The streetcar, known as Gloria, can carry more than 40 people, seated and standing. It is commonly used by Lisbon residents.
The streetcar, technically called a funicular, is known as Elevador da Gloria. Two streetcars run parallel to each other as they shuttle up and down the hill on a curved, traffic-free road for a few hundred meters (yards).
It is classified as a national monument.
Lisbon hosted around 8.5 million tourists last year, and the streetcar is a popular attraction. Long lines of tourists typically form for the brief ride on it.
Landmark streetcar in Lisbon derails, killing 15 people
https://arab.news/mfgqq
Landmark streetcar in Lisbon derails, killing 15 people
- Five of the injured are in serious condition, and a child is among the injured
- Authorities called it an accident, the worst in the city’s recent history
Venezuela swears in 5,600 troops after US military build-up
- American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87
CARACAS: The Venezuelan army swore in 5,600 soldiers on Saturday, as the United States cranks up military pressure on the oil-producing country.
President Nicolas Maduro has called for stepped-up military recruitment after the United States deployed a fleet of warships and the world’s largest aircraft carrier to the Caribbean under the pretext of combating drug trafficking.
American forces have carried out deadly strikes on more than 20 vessels, killing at least 87.
Washington has accused Maduro of leading the alleged “Cartel of the Suns,” which it declared a terrorist organization last month.
Maduro asserts the American deployment aims to overthrow him and seize the country’s oil reserves.
“Under no circumstances will we allow an invasion by an imperialist force,” Col. Gabriel Rendon said Saturday during a ceremony at Fuerte Tiuna, Venezuela’s largest military complex, in Caracas.
According to official figures, Venezuela has around 200,000 troops and an additional 200,000 police officers.
A former opposition governor died in prison on Saturday where he had been detained on charges of terrorism and incitement, a rights group said.
Alfredo Diaz was at least the sixth opposition member to die in prison since November 2024.
They had been arrested following protests sparked by last July’s disputed election, when Maduro claimed a third term despite accusations of fraud.
The protests resulted in 28 deaths and around 2,400 arrests, with nearly 2,000 people released since then.
Diaz, governor of Nueva Esparta from 2017 to 2021, “had been imprisoned and held in isolation for a year; only one visit from his daughter was allowed,” said Alfredo Romero, director of the NGO Foro Penal, which defends political prisoners.
The group says there are at least 887 political prisoners in Venezuela.
Opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado condemned the deaths of political prisoners in Venezuela during “post-electoral repression.”
“The circumstances of these deaths — which include denial of medical care, inhumane conditions, isolation, torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment — reveal a sustained pattern of state repression,” Machado said in a joint statement with Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the opposition candidate she believes won the election.
