At least 15 people killed after Lisbon’s funicular railway derails

At least 15 people were killed and 18 others injured on Wednesday when Lisbon’s iconic Gloria funicular — one of the city’s landmarks and a popular tourist attraction — derailed and crashed, 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, and it cast a pall over Lisbon’s charm for the millions of foreign tourists who arrive every year.

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. They are harnessed by steel cables.

It is classified as a national monument.