Eyewitnesses on the story of Lisbon funicular accident

It was just after 18:00 on Wednesday when a carriage on Lisbon’s famous Gloria funicular careened around the bend of a steep cobblestoned street, crashed into a building, and crumpled, eyewitnesses said.

The carriage “lost control”, descending at full speed and crashing on its side, Helen Chow, who was at the base of the hill, told the BBC.

It sounded like a bomb, she said, followed by “complete scary silence… There was pitch black smoke. Once it dissipated, you saw exactly what happened.”

People were frantic and crying, with others running to help, she described.

“It was awful,” she said. “I am shaken.”

Police are still investigating the cause of the crash, which killed at least 16 people and injured about 20 more, some critically, near Lisbon’s Avenida da Liberdade in the Portuguese capital.

Among the dead were seven men and eight women, and foreigners, Margarida Castro Martins, head of Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency, said.

Some foreign nationals were also killed, but where they were from remains unclear.

Portuguese transport union Sitra said André Jorge Gonçalves Marques, who worked as the brake guard on the funicular, was among the dead.