Most of those killed in Lisbon streetcar derailment were foreigners,
police say
[September 06, 2025]
By BARRY HATTON and SUMAN NAISHADHAM
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Police in Portugal said Friday that 11 of the 16
people killed when a streetcar derailed were foreigners, as an initial
investigative report examining what caused the popular Lisbon tourist
attraction to crash was delayed by a day.
The dead 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.
A German man also thought to have died in Wednesday’s crash was found to
be in a Lisbon hospital, police said. It didn't provide an explanation
for the error.
The list of nationalities was published following forensic
identification.
The distinctive yellow-and-white Elevador da Gloria, which is classified
as a national monument, was packed with locals and international
tourists Wednesday evening when it came off its rails. Sixteen people
were killed and 21 others were injured.
Multiple agencies are investigating what Prime Minister Luis Montenegro
has described as "one of the biggest tragedies of our recent past.”
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. But late in the day it informed
Portugal's national news agency Lusa that the report would be published
only on Saturday due to delays in carrying out procedures in conjunction
with other bodies. It wasn't clear how revealing its initial report
would be.
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.
A tragedy beyond Portugal's borders
A woman who was a French-Canadian dual citizen is among the dead, the
French Foreign Ministry said Friday.
The transport workers’ trade union SITRA said the streetcar’s brakeman,
André Marques, was among the dead. A national Portuguese charitable
organization, 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.
“This tragedy … goes beyond our borders,” Montenegro said in a televised
address from his official residence. Lisbon hosted around 8.5 million
tourists last year, and long lines of people typically form for the
streetcar’s short and picturesque trip a few hundred meters up and down
a city street. Thursday was a national day of mourning.
Hundreds of people attended a somber Mass Thursday evening at Lisbon’s
majestic Church of Saint Dominic. Montenegro, President Marcelo Rebelo
de Sousa and Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas were among the attendees, some
dressed in black, in the candlelit sanctuary.
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Flowers are photographed at the site where a tourist streetcar
derailed and crashed in Lisbon, Portugal, Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (AP
Photo/Armando Franca)
Daily inspections
The electric streetcar, also known as a funicular, is harnessed by steel
cables and can carry more than 40 people. Officials 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,” the mayor said, adding that talk of possible
causes is “mere speculation.”
Aside from investigations by police, public prosecutors and government
transport experts, 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 streetcar 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.
Tourists are shaken
Felicity Ferriter, a 70-year-old British tourist, 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 Gloria 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.”
___
Hernán Muñoz in Lisbon, and Angela Charlton in Paris, contributed to
this report.
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