LISBON, Portugal (AP) — An electric streetcar that is one of Lisbon’s landmarks and a big draw for tourists derailed Wednesday, killing 15 people and injuring 18 others, emergency services said.

Five of the injured are in serious condition, and a child is among the injured, the National Institute for Medical Emergencies said in a statement. An unknown number of the injured are foreigners, it said.

Authorities called it an accident, the worst in the city’s recent history.

The yellow-and-white streetcar, which goes up and down a steep downtown hill in tandem with one going the opposite way, was lying on its side on the narrow road that it travels along, Portuguese television channels showed.

Its sides and top were partially crumpled, and it appeared to have crashed into a building where the road bends. 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.

Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas told reporters at the scene that the city was in mourning. “This was a tragic accident … It’s a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen.”

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa offered his condolence to affected families.

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 cause of the accident was not immediately known. It reportedly occurred at the start of the evening rush hour, around 6 p.m.

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

The streetcar, known as Gloria, can carry more than 40 people, seated and standing. It is commonly used by Lisbon residents.

The streetcar, technically called a funicular, is known as Elevador da Gloria. Two streetcars run parallel to each other as they shuttle up and down the hill on a curved, traffic-free road for a few hundred meters (yards).

It is classified as a national monument.

Lisbon hosted around 8.5 million tourists last year, and the streetcar is a popular attraction. Long lines of tourists typically form for the brief ride on it.

MADRID, July 3 (Reuters) – Liverpool’s Portuguese forward Diogo Jota and his brother died in a car crash in northwestern Spain early on Thursday, when their Lamborghini veered off the road and burst into flames, authorities said.

Evidence at the scene of the crash near the city of Zamora suggests Jota’s car suffered a burst tyre while overtaking, Spanish police said in a statement. The crash occurred around 00:30 a.m.

Jota, 28, had just married his partner of ten years in late June, with whom he had three children.

“It doesn’t make sense. We were only just in the national team together, you’d only just got married,” fellow Portugal international Cristiano Ronaldo said on X.

Liverpool Football Club said it was devastated by the news of Jota’s death.

Fans began laying flowers in his memory at the team’s Anfield stadium. Jota arrived at Anfield in 2020 and scored 65 goals in 182 appearances for the club in all competitions.

Jota’s brother, who died alongside him, was also a footballer, with Penafiel in the Portuguese second division.

“We have lost two champions. Their deaths represent irreparable losses for Portuguese football, and we will do everything we can to honour their legacy every day,” the Portuguese Football Federation said.

A minute’s silence will be observed at all of Thursday’s and Friday’s matches at the Women’s Euros taking place in Switzerland, UEFA said in a statement.

“The news of the death of Diogo Jota, an athlete who greatly honoured the name of Portugal, and his brother, is unexpected and tragic,” Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro said on X. “I offer my most sincere condolences to his family.”

Jota helped Liverpool win the Premier League last season, scoring the derby winner against Everton and also won the FA Cup in 2022 and League Cup in 2022 and 2024 with the Merseyside outfit.

Born in Porto, he began his career with local team Pacos de Ferreira before switching to Wolverhampton Wanderers in 2017.

“We are heartbroken. Diogo was adored by our fans, loved by his teammates and cherished by everyone who worked with him during his time at Wolves,” the club said.

Pacos de Ferreira said in a statement that both brothers had left their mark on the small club located east of Porto.

“Diogo Jota became a reference for this club,” it said on social media. “An athlete with a champion’s attitude who reached the highest levels of professional football. His name is part of our history.”

He also made 49 appearances for Portugal, twice winning the UEFA Nations League.

“It is a remarkable achievement for a small guy that came from Gondomar, where I had this dream,” Jota said on Liverpool’s website of winning the Premier League. “It’s a moment I will cherish forever.”

(Reporting by Emma Pinedo, Martyn Herman and Catarina Demony; writing by Charlie Devereux, editing by Alexandra Hudson)

MADRID, June 18 (Reuters) – Spanish grid operator Redeia disputed the findings of a government report that said failure by the operator to calculate the correct mix of energy was one of the factors that led to a massive blackout in Spain and Portugal on April 28.

Redeia operations chief Concha Sanchez also told a news briefing on Wednesday that its own investigation had discovered anomalies in the disconnection of power plants on April 28, even though voltage in the system was within legal limits, as well as an anomalous growth in demand from the transport network.

Then, in the first seconds of the blackout, a combined-cycle plant that was supposed to provide stability to the system disconnected when it should not have, she said.

“Based on our calculation, there was enough voltage control capabilities planned” by Redeia, she said. “Had conventional power plants done their job in controlling the voltage there would have been no blackout.”

The government’s report released on Tuesday said Redeia’s miscalculation was one of the factors hindering the grid’s ability to cope with a surge in voltage that led to the outage.

According to Redeia’s Sanchez, the system was in “absolutely normal conditions” at noon just before the blackout.

Redeia will release its own full report on the causes of the outage, its chair, Beatriz Corredor, told the same news briefing.

(Reporting by Pietro Lombardi, writing by Inti Landauro, editing by Andrei Khalip)