Rescuers shout ‘there’s kids under there’ after Lisbon funicular deadly crash

Chaos engulfed Lisbon moments after the Gloria Funicular derailed as it sped downhill and overturned before smashing into a building.

At least 15 people have been killed and another 18 wounded, with five of them in a serious condition. A child is also among those injured.

The incident happened at around 6pm on Wednesday as one of the cables came loose along the railway’s route – one of the Portuguese capital’s most beloved attractions.

Footage of the aftermath of the disaster shows a mountain of dust rising from the wreckage of the yellow-and-white railway car.

People are seen racing towards the mangled mess in the hope to pull any survivors.

One witness can be heard yelling, ‘There are kids under the tram’, as the screams of children thought to be trapped beneath the rubble ring out.

Another woman shouts, ‘It just f*****g smashed,’ gesturing at the railway car crashed against a building.

Witnesses said the building the funicular smashed into is a hotel, and that victims were knocked unconscious amid the impact of the crash.

One said: ‘The police took less than five minutes to arrive and told us to get back and the first ambulances started arriving five minutes later.

‘One of the victims I saw was cut all over the place and covered in blood. A lot of people appeared to be unconscious.’

Teresa d’Avó told Portuguese TV channel SIC: ‘It hit the building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box.

She described the streetcar as out-of-control and said it looked like it had no brake.

Emergency workers worked to rescue people out of the wreckage into the late hours.

It was later confirmed that everyone who had been trapped after the crash has now been freed.

Portuguese authorities have not yet identified the victims or disclosed their nationalities, but said some foreign nationals were among the dead.

Why did Lisbon’s funicular railway overturn?

Named the Elevador da Glória, the picturesque yellow-and-white cars are one of the most popular tourist attractions in Lisbon, and date back to the late 1800s.

The Lisbon Firefighters Regiment reported that the incident was caused by a ‘cable that had come loose’ in the funicular system.

Professor Dave Cooper, chair the UK Standards committee for Cableways in the UK, told Metro that the system is ‘unlikely to have compiled with the modern standards expected of a new cableway’.

He said: ‘From an engineering design perspective what we know is that the system opened in 1885 and is therefore unlikely to have complied with modern standards expected of a new cableway system.

‘It can be described as a heritage system. It had two cars each rated at 43 persons and travelled a distance of some 265 metres.’

While an investigation is still ongoing, Prof Cooper questioned why the emergency brake – if there was one – did not apply.

He said: ‘From description seen it is understood that the system had just set off with the lower car ascending and inversely the upper car descending.

‘ Passengers from the lower car describe it that the car had just left the bottom station and travelled a short distance and then suddenly reversed and relaxed to its stopping position.

‘Given that the bottom car is still intact in that position and the top car that was descending is now down the track and has derailed it can be said that the relationship between the two cars has been lost.

‘It is possible that the ropes that connected the two have broken. It is understood that there were bends in the track and that if the top car was descending uncontrollably the geometry of the track may have allowed the car to derail given the speed that it would have achieved.

‘What is not understood is why the emergency brake (if there was one) on the uncontrollably descending car did not apply.

‘It maybe that it did but was unable to overcome a combination of the mass of the car and its passengers and the speed at which it was travelling.’

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