The Albany Gazette - 11 foreigners killed in Portugal funicular crash

Three Britons, two South Koreans, two Canadians, one Frenchwoman, one Swiss, one American and one Ukrainian were killed alongside five Portuguese in Wednesday's tragedy, police said.

Contrary to information released the previous day, no German citizens were among the victims, they added, but three were among the injured, including a three-year-old child.

In all, about 20 people were injured, including at least 11 foreigners, the emergency services said.

The Portuguese victims included four members of staff from the same social care institution, whose offices are situated at the top of the steep sideroad serviced by the funicular.

Friends, relatives and work colleagues attended a memorial mass for them Friday at the Sao Roque church in the city.

Debris from the century-old Gloria funicular that crashed into a building was cleared overnight Thursday to Friday, restoring a semblance of normality to the street where the disaster took place.

But the Portuguese capital remained in shock.

"I don't know what struck me the most, seeing the car hurtle down the street like a toy, the child (injured in the accident) or the people who ended up dead, some of them before our eyes," Bruno Pereira told public broadcaster RTP.

- Daily inspection -

The exact cause of the crash is still unknown but the Portuguese agency responsible for investigating air and rail accidents said it would publish its "first confirmed findings" later on Friday.

A preliminary report will be published "within 45 days", its director Nelson Oliveira announced.

Speaking alongside Oliveira at a press conference, judicial police chief Luis Neves said the investigation would not rule out any potential causes.

"Nothing is out of the question," he said. "We have to keep an open mind."

Local media speculation about the cause of the crash has ranged between ruptured high-tension cables and maintenance work overseen by Lisbon's public transport operator Carris.

"Something unusual happened that suddenly snapped the cable and that is what the investigation should focus on," Carlos Minerio Aires, a former head of Portugal's engineering regulatory body, told SIC television.

But the head of Carris has repeatedly defended the company's equipment maintenance policy, insisting that procedures had been "scrupulously followed".

"We cannot start from the premise that the problem lies in the cable. That's what the investigation will determine," said Pedro Bogas.

Portuguese media have published the report of the daily inspection conducted on the morning of the tragedy, which indicated the operating system was running smoothly.

According to the weekly Expresso publication, the number of passengers using the three funiculars operated by Carris in Lisbon jumped by 53 percent between 2022 and 2024, to 1.5 million passengers last year.

According to eyewitnesses, one of the two yellow cars on the funicular, which are connected by a cable in a counterweight system, hurtled down the steep street at full speed, derailed on a bend and smashed into a building.

(A.Thompson--TAG)