Portugal mourns victims as railcar crash investigated
Portuguese officials are investigating that a popular Lisbon funicular railway, which is popular among tourists, to go down from a hill, kill at least 16 people and hit a building on Wednesday.
The prosecution said that Coroners have described the bodies of five Portuguese, two South Korean and one Swiss citizen without disclosing the more details of those who have been killed so far.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that a US citizen was killed in an accident. According to Luis Neves, Chief of Judicial Police of Portugal, there was a “high degree of certainty” because the identities have not yet been confirmed, a Ukrainian and a German were two Canadians among the dead.
A yellow tram -like carrier carrying a steep slope in the Portuguese capital of the Portuguese capital stretches where the mixed wreckage is separated from the track and hit a twin under the 265 -meter slope. The traction cable that tied them was caught.
75 -year -old Lisbon resident Abel Esteves and his wife and grandson were among the 40 passengers in the lower car that saw the car dived into them before leaving the rail in the last second.
“I told my wife: ‘We will all die here’, ‘he said. “He took a brutal speed, made a slight turn, and hit the building with a high explosion.”
The flags flew on half a pole and people left flowers at the accident site because Portugal mourned. The Pope sent condolences and blessings to victims, relatives and rescuers.
“This is one of the biggest human tragedies in our recent history, Prime Minister Luis Karadağ said in a statement on television, expecting that the investigation into the causes of the accident is expected to be quickly concluded.
A total of 38 people were injured in the accident, 15 people were killed at the scene, another night died in the hospital.
Among the wounded, four Portuguese, two Germans, two Spanish, one Korean, a cape verdean, a Canadian, an Italian, a French citizen, a Switzerland and a Moroccan, Lisbon’s Emergency Services Director Margarida Martins said.
Local media reported that a three -person family is among the victims. The father said that the mother was seriously injured and that her three -year -old children were subjected to mild injury.
Brazilian Eliane Chaves, who has been living in Lisbon for 20 years, said that Glória, one of the symbols of the city, has passed every day.
“People say it was neglect, but it wasn’t neglect, dedi tears said, flowing down the cheeks. “They’re thoroughly supervising it. It was an accident that could be an airplane or traffic accident.”
Manuel Leal, the leader of the Fajrat Association, said to local TV employees that he complained that the problems with the tension of the cable make it difficult to brake, but it was too early to say whether the accident was the reason for the accident.
Municipal transport company Carris, said in a statement, including monthly and weekly maintenance and daily inspections, including all maintenance protocols, he said.
Two cars, each of which can carry approximately 40 people, turn into a slope and the electric motors descend as they pull the cable that connects them.
An firefighter said that this cable looks like caught. Apparently, the transport, which could not control its landing, entered the return very quickly by rubbing the parquet stone pavement and hitting a building.
The lower car retreated several meters and was apparently undamaged, but showed a few passengers who jumped by Bystanders’ videos from their windows.
The line, which was opened in 1885, combines the city center of Lisbon near the restaurant square with Bairro ALTO or upward quarter, famous for its nightlife and carries about three million people a year.
