A cable linking two carriages snapped shortly before Wednesday’s funicular crash in Lisbon that killed 16 people, accident inspectors have said in a report. The findings were published on Saturday by Portugal’s air and rail accident investigations bureau (GPIAAF) into the incident that left at least 20 others injured with five people in a critical condition. A scheduled visual inspection had been carried out on the morning of the accident but the area where the cable broke was “not visible without dismantling” and the rest of the mechanism was functioning properly, the report added. The carriages of the city’s iconic Glória funicular had travelled no more than six metres when they “suddenly lost the balancing force of the connecting cable”. Two separate investigations are now under way into the accident: one carried out by the accident investigators’ office and another by the prosecutors’ office.

Source: The Guardian September 07, 2025 16:48 UTC