LISBON – It was simply after 18:00 on Wednesday when a carriage on Lisbon’s well-known Gloria funicular careened across the bend of a steep cobblestoned avenue, crashed right into a constructing, and crumpled, eyewitnesses stated.
The carriage “misplaced management”, descending at full velocity and crashing on its aspect, Helen Chow, who was on the base of the hill, advised the BBC.
It appeared like a bomb, she stated, adopted by “full scary silence…There was pitch black smoke. As soon as it dissipated, you noticed precisely what occurred.”
Individuals have been frantic and crying, with others working to assist, she described.
“It was terrible,” she stated. “I’m shaken.”
Police are nonetheless investigating the reason for the crash, which killed no less than 17 folks and injured 20 extra, some critically, close to Lisbon’s Avenida da Liberdade within the Portuguese capital.
Video verified by the BBC exhibits the crashed yellow-and-white prepare in opposition to the constructing on the bend of a hill, with one other prepare stopped on the backside. Individuals are working up the incline in the direction of the scene of the crash.
The 2 carriages of the 140-year-old funicular, which runs on electrical motors, are connected to a cable that permits one to journey downhill whereas the opposite goes uphill, passing one another briefly alongside the three-minute one-way journey.
Witnesses described how the carriage close to the underside of the hill, which was beginning to ascend, crashed a brief distance backwards simply earlier than the higher carriage raced down the incline and into the constructing.
Round a minute earlier than the crash, Ms Chow, who’s initially from Canada however was visiting Lisbon, stated she heard a loud screech.
She noticed the underside carriage fall again, previous the white line the place it often halted, and make “a tough cease” on the finish of the tracks.
A passenger on that carriage advised Portuguese information outlet Sic Notícias it solely went up just a few metres earlier than a “large bang” and “black smoke”.
“Individuals fell to the bottom and everybody was screaming inside,” they stated.
Ms Chow additionally noticed black particles and heard screaming, as the motive force rushed to open the gates to the doorway.
“Individuals jumped out of the window of that tram,” she stated. “Simply as this occurred, I noticed the incident tram crash over into the constructing subsequent to the Subway restaurant.”
One other witness stated they ran to assist after the decrease carriage dropped – earlier than seeing the opposite coming down “uncontrolled”.
“We solely had time to flee, flip our backs and run,” they stated. “It got here down and struck the constructing at excessive velocity.”
Teresa d’Avó stated the carriage “hit a constructing with brutal pressure and collapsed like a cardboard field,” telling tv channel SIC it appeared prefer it “had no brakes”.
She additionally advised newspaper Observador the automobile was “uncontrolled, with out brakes”.
“All of us began working away as a result of we thought [the carriage] was going to hit the one beneath,” she stated. “Nevertheless it fell across the bend and crashed right into a constructing.”
Farid Shovro, proprietor of a close-by retailer who ran to the scene, advised Observador: “I’ve by no means seen so many individuals useless collectively.”
Some vacationers advised the BBC they’d nearly taken the funicular on the time of the crash.
Eric Packer, from the US however visiting Lisbon on vacation, advised the BBC he had mentioned along with his associates taking the cable automotive and took photos at 18:00 and 18:01, however determined to stroll again to their lodge as a substitute.
They walked about 60 metres and heard a loud crash noise “like a rock falling, like a dump truck had dropped a load of rocks” at 18:02.
They rotated to see mud popping out of the alley about 45 metres behind them and walked again to see what occurred. At first, he thought it was the prepare on the backside that fell, till he turned and noticed the opposite prepare that was above it, and realised “the magnitude of what had taken place”.
His {photograph} exhibits the yellow-and-white prepare, a tangle of metallic, on the nook of the slender alley below a Subway restaurant signal, with the opposite prepare on the backside of the hill beneath it.
“Individuals (have been) strolling up and working as much as attempt to assist,” he stated. “Horrible tragedy and our ideas and prayers exit to the households and survivors.” – BBC
