Streetcar Derailment Killed Mostly Foreign Visitors

Police in Portugal said Friday that 11 of the 16 people killed when a Lisbon streetcar derailed were foreigners. The dead included five Portuguese nationals, three British citizens, two Canadians, two South Koreans, one American, one French, one Swiss, and one Ukrainian, police said in a statement, the AP reports. The distinctive yellow-and-white Elevador da Gloria, which is classified as a national monument, was packed Wednesday evening when it came off its rails. Sixteen people were killed, and 21 were injured. Multiple agencies are investigating what Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has described as "one of the biggest tragedies of our recent past." Developments:

• Regular inspections: The electric streetcar, also known as a funicular, is harnessed by steel cables and can carry more than 40 people. Officials declined to comment on whether a faulty brake or a snapped cable may have prompted the descending streetcar to careen into a building where the steep downtown road bends. The streetcar, which has been in service since 1914, underwent a scheduled full maintenance program last year, and the company conducted a 30-minute visual inspection of it every day, said Carris CEO Pedro de Brito Bogas. It was last inspected nine hours before the derailment.

• International toll: A woman who was a French-Canadian dual citizen is among the dead, the French Foreign Ministry said Friday. The transport workers' trade union said the streetcar's brakeman, André Marques, was among the dead. A national Portuguese charitable organization, Santa Casa da Misericórdia, whose main Lisbon headquarters are at the top of the hill where the streetcar runs, said four of its staff were killed. Spaniards, Israelis, Portuguese, Brazilians, Italians, and French people were injured, said the head of the National Health Service.
• Blame game: The international toll speaks to complaints of "excessive tourism" being a factor in the crash, per Fox News. Locals say the tram is such a tourist attraction that they can scarcely use it for public transport anymore.
• Mourning: Thursday was a national day of mourning. Hundreds of people attended a somber Mass on Thursday evening at Lisbon's majestic Church of Saint Dominic. Montenegro, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, and Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas attended.