https://arab.news/zhvam
- The report was originally set to be made public on Friday
- Eleven foreign nationals were among the 16 people killed when one of Lisbon’s popular funicular trains crashed
LISBON: Portuguese authorities have delayed until Saturday the release of their initial findings on what caused the fatal derailment of one of Lisbon’s famous funicular trains, which killed 16 people.
The report was originally set to be made public on Friday. But a spokesman for the GPIAAF air and rail accident investigations bureau told Portugal’s Lusa news agency late on Friday: “It is not possible to publish the report today.”
It was now expected to be released “sometime Saturday afternoon,” the spokesman said.
The report was only to give very early findings on the circumstances of the accident, which struck on Wednesday, with a more detailed preliminary report due “probably within 45 days,” the chief police investigator, Nelson Oliveira, said on Thursday.
Eleven foreign nationals were among the 16 people killed when one of Lisbon’s popular funicular trains crashed.
Three Britons, two South Koreans, two Canadians, one Frenchwoman, one Swiss man, one American and one Ukrainian were killed alongside five Portuguese, police said.
Eyewitness accounts described the wagon speeding down the steep street before derailing at a slight bend and crashing into a building at around 6:00 p.m. local time (5:00 p.m. GMT) on Wednesday.
In a Thursday press conference alongside Oliveira, judicial police chief Luis Neves had said the investigation was not ruling out any potential causes.
At least 11 foreigners were among the injured — two Germans, two Spaniards, a Frenchwoman, an Italian, a Swiss national, a Canadian, a South Korean, a Moroccan and a Cape Verdean, emergency services said.
Local media speculation about the cause of the accident has mentioned ruptured security cables and maintenance work overseen by Lisbon’s public transport operator Carris.
But a daily inspection conducted on the morning of the tragedy indicated a smoothly operating system.
The derailed wagon was removed from the street early on Friday.