Some 15 persons have been killed and 18 others injured as Portugal’s famous Gloria Funicular cable railway derailed and hit a building in Lisbon, Portugal’s emergency medical service authority has said.
Among those injured is a child, with the cause of the crash still unknown. The incident happened on Wednesday evening, September 3, 2025.
Eyewitnesses told multiple Portugese media outlets that they saw the cable rail “out of control, without brakes.”
Another eyewitnesse reportedly said the carriage “collapsed like a cardboard box.”
Portuguese authorities told journalists that among those killed were foreign nationals.
Reports say the railway, which started operations as far back as the 19th century, connects Lisbon’s downtown with the city’s upper quarter, “and is popular with tourists.”
The cable railway reportedly carries about 43 passengers but it remains unknown how many people were onboard at the time of the crash.
An eyewitness told Portuguese TV channel SIC that the funicular hit a building as it sped down the steep street “at full speed”, reports the AFP news agency.
“It hit a building with brutal force and collapsed like a cardboard box; it had no brakes,” the woman says.