Three-year-old German boy rescued from Lisbon streetcar crash wreckage, officials say

A three-year-old German boy has been rescued from the wreckage of a Lisbon streetcar which derailed and crashed on Wednesday evening, officials said.

The boy and his mother were among the more than 20 people injured in the crash that Prime Minister Luís Montenegro described as "one of the biggest tragedies of our recent past."

The boy's father was reportedly killed in the crash while his mother is in a critical condition in hospital.

Portuguese police said on Friday that 11 of the 16 people killed were foreigners, after carrying out forensic identification.

The death toll included five Portuguese nationals, three British citizens, two Canadians, two South Koreans, one American, one French, one Swiss and one Ukrainian, police said in a statement, while a further 21 individuals were injured. 

Police also revealed that a German citizen, who was believed to have died in the incident, was subsequently found to be in a Lisbon hospital. They did not provide an explanation for the error. 

The distinctive yellow-and-white Elevador da Glória, which is classified as a national monument, was packed with locals and international tourists Wednesday evening when it derailed. 

The government's Office for Air and Rail Accident Investigations said that it has concluded its analysis of the wreckage and would issue a preliminary technical report Friday. 

Chief police investigator Nelson Oliveira said that a preliminary police report, which has a broader scope, is expected within 45 days.

The streetcar's wreckage was removed from the scene overnight and placed in police custody.

Daily inspections

The streetcar which crashed is harnessed by steel cables and can carry more than 40 people. 

Officials have declined to comment on whether a faulty brake or a snapped cable may have prompted the descending streetcar to careen into a building where the steep downtown road bends.

"The city needs answers," Lisbon's Mayor Carlos Moedas said, but stated that talk of possible causes were "mere speculation."

On top of investigations by police and authorities, the company that operates Lisbon's streetcars and buses, Carris, said it has opened its own investigation.

The streetcar, which has been in service since 1914, underwent a scheduled full maintenance program last year and the company conducted a 30-minute visual inspection of it every day, Carris CEO Pedro de Brito Bogas said Thursday.

The vehicle was last inspected nine hours before the derailment, he said during a news conference, but he didn't detail the visual inspection or specify when questioned whether all the cables were tested.

Lisbon's City Council halted operations of three other funicular streetcars while immediate inspections were carried out.

Tragedy beyond Portugal's borders

A woman who was a French-Canadian dual citizen is among the dead, the French Foreign Ministry said on Friday.

The transport workers' trade union SITRA said the streetcar's brakeman, André Marques, was also among the dead. A national Portuguese charitable organisation, Santa Casa da Misericórdia, whose main Lisbon headquarters are at the top of the hill where the streetcar runs, said four of its staff were killed.

Spaniards, Israelis, Portuguese, Brazilians, Italians and French people were injured, the executive director of Portugal’s National Health Service, Álvaro Santos, said.

Portuguese Prime Minister Luís Montenegro said "this tragedy … goes beyond our borders," in a televised address from his official residence, as the country observed a national day of mourning on Thursday. 

Hundreds of people, including President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, were among those who attended a mass Thursday evening at Lisbon's Church of Saint Dominic.

Tourists shaken by the crash

Felicity Ferriter, a 70-year-old British tourist on holiday with her partner, said she was unpacking her suitcase at a nearby hotel when she heard "a horrendous crash."

The couple had seen the streetcar when they arrived and intended to ride on it the next day.

"It was to be one of the highlights of our holiday," she said, adding: "It could have been us."

Francesca di Bello, a 23-year-old Italian tourist on a family vacation, had been on the Elevador da Glória just hours before the derailment.

They walked by the crash site on Thursday, expressing shock at the wreckage. Asked if she would ride a funicular again in Portugal or elsewhere, Di Bello was emphatic: "Definitely not."