Famed streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, derails and crashes, killing 15 people

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A picturesque electric streetcar that is one of Lisbon’s big tourist attractions derailed and crashed Wednesday, killing 15 people and injuring 18 others, emergency services said.

Five of the injured were in serious condition and a child was among the injured, Portugal's National Institute for Medical Emergencies said in a statement, adding that an unknown number of foreigners were among the injured.

Authorities called it an accident, the worst in the city’s recent history, and it cast a pall over Lisbon’s charm for the millions of foreign tourists who arrive every year. Officials did not immediately provide a cause of the crash.

The yellow-and-white streetcar, which is known as Elevador da Gloria and goes up and down a steep downtown hill, was lying on its side on the narrow road that it travels on, its sides and top crumpled. It appeared to have crashed into a building where the road bends, leaving parts of the mostly metal vehicle crushed.

“It hit the building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box…” Teresa d’Avó told Portuguese TV channel SIC. She described the streetcar as out-of-control and seeming to have no brakes, and said she watched passersby run into the middle of the nearby Avenida da Liberdade, or Freedom Avenue, the city’s main thoroughfare.

Several dozen emergency workers were at the scene but most stood down after about two hours.

Eyewitnesses told local media that the streetcar careened down the hill, apparently out of control. One witness said the streetcar toppled onto a man on a sidewalk.

Videos shared widely across social media of the moments after the accident showed what appeared to be heavy smoke in the air as people got out of a streetcar just in front of the one that crashed, some racing up the hill to the wreckage as people around yelled.

Carris, the company that operates the streetcar, said scheduled maintenance had been carried out. It offered its deepest condolences to the victims and their families in a social media post, and promised that all due diligence would be taken in finding the causes of the accident.

Lisbon’s City Council suspended operations of other streetcars in the city and ordered immediate inspections, local media reported.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa offered his condolences to affected families, and Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas said the city was in mourning. “It’s a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen," Moedas said.

Portugal’s government announced that a day of national mourning would be observed on Thursday. “A tragic accident … caused the irreparable loss of human life, which left in mourning their families and dismayed the whole country,” it said in a statement.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen also sent her condolences. “It is with sadness that I learned of the derailment of the famous Elevador da Gloria,” she wrote in Portuguese on X.

The crash reportedly occurred at the start of the evening rush hour, around 6 p.m. Emergency officials said all victims were pulled out of the wreckage in just over two hours.

An investigation into the causes will begin once the rescue operation is over, the government said.

SITRA, a trade union, wrote in a post on social media that one of its members died in the accident.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez wrote on X that he was “appalled by the terrible accident," while Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani wrote that he had met with the Portuguese foreign minister and expressed his "solidarity with the victims.”

The U.S. Embassy Lisbon also offered its “deepest condolences to all affected,” according to a post on X.

The streetcar, technically called a funicular, is harnessed by steel cables and can carry more than 40 people, seated and standing. It is also commonly used by Lisbon residents. The service up and down a few hundred meters (yards) of a hill on a curved, traffic-free road in tandem with one going the opposite way inaugurated in 1885.

It is classified as a national monument.

Lisbon hosted around 8.5 million tourists last year, and long lines of people typically form for the brief rides on the popular streetcar.

Associated Press reporter Hallie Golden in Seattle contributed to this report.

View of the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

A police officer walks at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

FILE - The Gloria funicular makes its way uphill in Lisbon, on April 12, 2023. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)

FILE - Tourists pack the Gloria funicular arriving at Bairro Alto, or High Quarter, from downtown Lisbon, on Aug. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Armando Franca, File)

Members of the judicial police work at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Emergency teams work at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Emergency teams work at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Emergency teams work at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Firefighters carrying the body of a person on a stretcher at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Emergency teams work at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Emergency teams work at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Emergency teams work at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Emergency teams work at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Emergency teams work at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

Emergency teams work at the site of a derailed electric streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Armando Franca)

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A South Korean court sentenced former President Yoon Suk Yeol to five years in prison Friday in the first verdict from eight criminal trials over the martial law debacle that forced him out of office and other allegations.

Yoon was impeached, arrested and dismissed as president after his short-lived imposition of martial law in December 2024 triggered huge public protests calling for his ouster.

The most significant criminal charge against him alleges that his martial law enforcement amounted to a rebellion, and the independent counsel has requested the death sentence in the case that is to be decided in a ruling next month.

In Friday's case, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Yoon for defying attempts to detain him, fabricating the martial law proclamation and sidestepping a legally mandated full Cabinet meeting.

Yoon has maintained he didn’t intend to place the country under military rule for an extended period, saying his decree was only meant to inform the people about the danger of the liberal-controlled parliament obstructing his agenda. But investigators have viewed Yoon’s decree as an attempt to bolster and prolong his rule, charging him with rebellion, abuse of power and other criminal offenses.

Judge Baek Dae-hyun said in the televised ruling that imposing “a grave punishment” was necessary because Yoon hasn’t shown remorse and has only repeated “hard-to-comprehend excuses.” The judge also restoring legal systems damaged by Yoon’s action was necessary.

Yoon, who can appeal the ruling, hasn’t immediately publicly responded to the ruling. But when the independent counsel demanded a 10-year prison term in the case, Yoon’s defense team accused them of being politically driven and lacking legal grounds to demand such “an excessive” sentence.

Prison sentences in the multiple, smaller trials Yoon faces would matter if he is spared the death penalty or life imprisonment at the rebellion trial.

Park SungBae, a lawyer who specializes in criminal law, said there is little chance the court would decide Yoon should face the death penalty in the rebellion case. He said the court will likely issue a life sentence or a sentence of 30 years or more in prison.

South Korea has maintained a de facto moratorium on executions since 1997 and courts rarely hand down death sentences. Park said the court would take into account that Yoon’s decree didn’t cause casualties and didn’t last long, although Yoon hasn’t shown genuine remorse for his action.

A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol shouts slogans outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A supporter of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol waits for a bus carrying former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs as police officers stand guard outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs and flags outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

Supporters of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol hold signs outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

A picture of former South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol is placed on a board as supporters gather outside Seoul Central District Court, in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Jan. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)