The death toll from a devastating crash involving Lisbon’s iconic Elevador da Gloria streetcar, a major tourist attraction, rose to 17 on Thursday after two of the 23 injured victims succumbed to their injuries, according to an emergency services official.

Margarida Castro Martins, head of Lisbon’s Civil Protection Agency, confirmed that all the deceased were adults. She withheld their names and nationalities, prioritising family notifications. Of the 21 injured, the victims included Portuguese nationals and individuals from Germany, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Canada, Morocco, South Korea, and Cape Verde, reflecting the streetcar’s popularity among international tourists flooding Lisbon during the summer season.

Portugal declared Thursday a national day of mourning, marking the capital’s worst disaster in recent memory. The transport workers’ union SITRA reported that the streetcar’s brakeman, Andre Marques, was among those killed, though authorities have not released further details about the victims.

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The Elevador da Gloria, a 19th-century yellow-and-white funicular, is a beloved Lisbon landmark, drawing crowds for its scenic ride up and down one of the city’s steep hills. The crash occurred Wednesday around 6 pm during the evening rush hour, leaving the streetcar’s crumpled wreckage on a downtown road, cordoned off by police on Thursday. The vehicle, which derailed and slammed into a building, was described by witness Teresa d’Avo as “out of control” with seemingly no brakes. “It hit the building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box,” she told SIC television, noting that passersby fled into the nearby Avenida da Liberdade, Lisbon’s main boulevard.

Emergency crews extracted all victims from the wreckage in just over two hours. The funicular, capable of carrying over 40 passengers, operates on steel cables along a curved, traffic-free route between Restauradores Square and the vibrant Bairro Alto neighbourhood. Following the crash, Lisbon City Council suspended operations of the city’s three other iconic funiculars for immediate safety inspections.

Investigators from Portugal’s judicial police photographed the rails and wreckage but declined to comment on potential causes, such as brake failure or a snapped cable. Pathologists at the National Forensics Institute, supported by teams from three other Portuguese cities, worked overnight to conduct autopsies. The injured were treated at multiple hospitals in the Lisbon area.

The Elevador da Gloria, classified as a national monument since its inception in 1885, is a staple for Lisbon’s 8.5 million annual tourists, who often queue for its short but picturesque ride. Carris, the streetcar’s operator, confirmed that scheduled maintenance had been performed and pledged full cooperation in determining the crash’s cause while expressing condolences to victims’ families.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas extended their sympathies, with Moedas calling the incident “a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen.” The government described the crash as a “tragic accident” that left the nation in mourning. European Union flags at the European Parliament and Commission in Brussels were lowered to half-staff, and several EU leaders shared condolences online.

Lisbon’s streets remained sombre Thursday as the city grappled with the aftermath of the disaster.

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