Portuguese police have released details of the nationalities of the 16 killed in a funicular railway crash in Lisbon.
The mangled wreckage has been removed for further analysis to establish the cause of the crash in Portugal’s capital.
After coroners identified more bodies, police updated the list of fatalities that now includes five Portuguese citizens, three Britons, two South Koreans, two Canadians and one from each of France, Switzerland, Ukraine and the United States.
They released no names or other details. More than 20 people were injured.
READ MORE
Police said a German citizen who had been presumed dead was in fact alive in a hospital. Local media had reported that a German father had died and a mother was seriously hurt while their three-year-old child suffered minor injuries.
The German foreign ministry said at least three German nationals were in hospital.
Portugal is still reeling from a tragedy that prime minister Luis Montenegro described as one of the greatest in its recent history and one that threatens to dent confidence in the tourism industry, which in Lisbon depends on vintage attractions such as the 140-year-old Gloria railway.
A preliminary report on the crash would take six weeks to complete, Portuguese authorities said. While they did not rule out any possible cause, police sources told the Publico daily there were no signs of foul play.
The crashed car’s twin at the bottom of the steep 265-metre slope was also removed and will be studied by experts.
The two cars, each capable of carrying around 40 people, alternately climb the slope and descend, one helping to pull the other up, as electric motors drive the cable linking them.
That traction cable snapped, apparently at or near the connection to the bottom of the upper car, according to two experts consulted by Reuters who watched video footage.
Seemingly unable to check its descent, the carriage entered a sharp bend in the street too fast, ploughing into the cobblestone pavement and crashing into a building.
The municipal transport company Carris has said “all maintenance protocols have been carried out”, including monthly and weekly maintenance and daily inspections, the latest just hours before the incident with no faults detected.
“We cannot assume that the problem was with the cable,” Carris chief executive Pedro Bogas said.
The line connects Lisbon’s central area near the Restauradores Square with the Bairro Alto. It transports around three million people a year.
The funicular tracks carry two carriages, one heading up the hill and one down.
The crash occurred shortly after 6pm on Wednesday, just after the funicular began moving. The car at the top of the hill broke loose and sped downhill before crashing into a building.
“They had the whole downhill run in front of them, and they picked up a lot of speed,” said Stefania Lepidi, a passenger on the carriage that was to head uphill.
That vehicle suffered a short free fall, causing some injuries. – Reuters and agencies
