Shock in Lisbon as three-year-old pulled from funicular wreckage

There is a palpable sense of shock on the faces of people gathering at the site of a major funicular crash in the Portuguese capital as they hear of how a three-year-old German boy was pulled alive from the wreckage – a lucky survivor of Wednesday’s terrible crash which killed 16 people.

The boy’s father was reportedly killed and his mother injured in the crash. It is still unclear what caused the crash, in which more than 20 other people were injured, including many foreign nationals.

The capital’s public transport operator, Carris, said all funiculars would be inspected and that it had launched an independent probe into the incident.

Police and prosecutors are also investigating the crash.

One local resident told the BBC she was “still processing” what had happened as she walked past the site of the crash, where the wreckage of the funicular that had derailed and crashed into a building lay on the ground.

“It’s very, very sad,” she said.

Others gathered and took photos of the wreckage, or stood silently watching. Two tourists from Singapore said they had been scheduled to ride the funicular on Wednesday but had changed their plans at the last minute.

“It’s scary… Who knows, we might have been on this one,” one said. “It changes your perspective on life. You just don’t expect something like this to happen.”

Tour guide Mariana Figueiredo was among those at the scene of the crash on Wednesday evening. She said she had been traumatised by what she had witnessed.

Ms Figueiredo said she heard a large crash and rushed to the scene, close to where her TukTuk was parked.

“In five seconds I was there,” she said. “People started to jump from the windows inside the funicular at the bottom of the hill. Then I saw another one [further up] that was already crushed.

“I started to climb the hill to help the people but when I got there the only thing I could hear was silence.”

Ms Figueiredo said that when she and others started to pull the roof off of the funicular, they saw dead bodies inside.

She said she witnessed children being rescued, and tried to help people with broken bones and to calm those in distress.

“A lot of people were crying around me. They were very frightened. I was trying to calm them down.”

A man, who was on another funicular at the bottom of the hill at the time of the crash, told reporters that he thought he was going to die.

“No matter how many more years I live, I’ll never take the funicular again,” he said.

Police have not officially named any of the dead or injured, but said at a news conference on Thursday that they believed two Canadians, one German and one Ukrainian national were thought to be among the dead.

This followed from an earlier update in which police said they believed five Portuguese, two South Korean and one Swiss national had been identified.

The Portuguese transport union said funicular brake guard André Jorge Gonçalves Marques was among those killed.

Charity Santa Casa da Misericórdia, whose employees used the funicular for their work commute, confirmed that four of their workers were killed in the accident.

One employee, Valdemar Bastos, told the BBC that staff at the charity, located on top of a steep hill, often used the funicular along with tourists and elderly people.

“I have always felt safe,” he said. “I never thought this could happen.”

On Thursday, the head of Lisbon’s public transport operator, Carris, said that all funiculars in the city would be closed until technical inspections had been carried out.

Pedro Gonçalo de Brito Aleixo Bogas told reporters that the Gloria line would reopen in the future with a new carriage.

He said the company had increased its spending on maintaining funiculars – which had operated correctly since 2007 – but added that the cost of maintaining them had more than doubled over the past 10 years.

The findings from the investigation would be released soon, Dr De Brito Bogas said, but declined to say when this would happen.

Footage shared on social media showed the crumpled yellow funicular overturned on the cobblestone street and people running from the area as smoke filled the air.

Several passengers trapped in the wreckage had to be freed by emergency responders, local authorities said.

Officials in Lisbon had initially put the death toll at 17, however that number was later revised down to 16 after they discovered a person who died in hospital overnight had been counted twice.

A funicular is a type of railway system that allows travel up and down steep slopes, and in Lisbon they are a crucial means of navigating the city’s steep, cobbled streets.

The city’s funicular railways – Glória, Lavra, Bica and Graça – are a popular tourist attraction, as the bright yellow tram-like vehicles snake through the often-narrow, hilly streets.

Glória was opened in 1885 and electrified three decades later.

It travels some 275m (900ft) from Restauradores, a central city square, up to the picturesque streets of Bairro Alto. The journey takes just three minutes.

The two carriages on the Glória route are attached to opposite ends of a haulage cable, which is pulled by electric motors.

As one carriage travels downhill, its weight lifts the other, allowing them to ascend and descend simultaneously, reducing the energy needed to transport them.

The second, intact carriage could be seen just metres from the wreckage at the bottom of the hill.