At least 15 dead, 23 injured after streetcar derails in Lisbon, city says
Rescuers and firefighters operate at the scene after the Gloria funicular cable railway derailed in Lisbon, Portugal, 03 September 2025. (Zed Jameson/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — At least 15 people are dead and another 23 injured after a streetcar derailed in Portugal’s capital on Wednesday, officials said.
At least five people are in serious condition following the crash in Lisbon, according to the city’s communications department.
One 3-year-old child is included in the 23 injured, according to an official.
It appears the safety cable on the electric streetcar broke, causing the car to derail, the department said, based on preliminary information.
Carris, the operator of the streetcar, said that all maintenance protocols were complied with, including daily inspections.
The mayor of Lisbon declared a three-day period of mourning.
“I offer my sincere condolences to all the families and friends of the victims. Lisbon is in mourning,” Mayor Carlos Moedas said in a statement.
Portugal’s Prime Minister’s Office also declared a national day of mourning for Thursday, expressing its “deep dismay” over the accident, and said it is in contact with local officials.
The incident — which happened around 6:15 p.m. local time — remains under investigation. Carris said it immediately opened an investigation along with the authorities to determine the cause of the accident.
The rescue mission lasted around two hours, a Public Ministry official told ABC News.
The tram cabin that derailed can hold up to 40 people. The famed streetcar, known as the Elevador da Gloria, is a funicular that travels up and down a steep hill.
“It is with sadness that I learned of the derailment of the famous ‘Elevador da Glória,'” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement. “My condolences to the families of the victims.”
All the other funiculars of the city have been suspended for now: Lavra, Graça and Bica, according to an official.
(WASHINGTON) — Hamas announced it has submitted a “positive response” to the mediators about the current ceasefire and hostage exchange release proposal on the table.
How the proposal will be implemented will require another round of negotiations, according to the group.
“The movement is fully prepared to immediately enter into a round of negotiations regarding the mechanism for implementing this framework,” Hamas said.
The deal comes more than 20 months into the conflict — and more than three months after a previous deal ended.
Israel had expected a response from Hamas on the ceasefire and hostage deal by Friday, an Israeli official told ABC News.
Earlier this week, a Hamas adviser said the group was still studying the proposal.
“Hamas is open to any proposal that will end the Israeli military campaign in Gaza, but Hamas wants guarantees that Israel will commit to moving to the second phase of the ceasefire agreement after the first phase, which is set to last for 60 days,” said Taher Al-Nounou, media adviser to the head of Hamas.
What’s in the deal?
The revised temporary ceasefire deal on the table now deals with the release of more hostages by Hamas, according to two Israeli sources familiar with the matter.
The deal calls for the release of 10 living hostages from Hamas captivity and the return of 15 bodies of hostages being held by the terrorist group.
It is believed there are about 20 living hostages still being held by Hamas.
According to the terms of the proposal, the release of the 10 living hostages and 15 bodies will be staggered over the 60-day period the temporary ceasefire is in effect.
Under the terms of the deal, Hamas will not hold ceremonies for the hostage releases, as they did during a previous six-week ceasefire.
Discussion of a permanent ceasefire will take place during the 60-day period.
Even after Hamas responds to the proposal, there are still several issues that remain to be addressed, one of the sources said — including the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released in exchange for hostages.
In many rounds of negotiations, Hamas has sought a guaranteed end to the war in Gaza — but that remained a chief sticking point in recent negotiations and something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had not agreed to budge on.
President Donald Trump announced earlier this week that Israel had agreed to conditions for the 60-day ceasefire in Gaza.
Trump said representatives from Qatar and Egypt would deliver the final proposal to Hamas, which came after a “long and productive meeting” between Trump officials and Israeli officials in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday.
“I hope, for the good of the Middle East, that Hamas takes this Deal, because it will not get better — IT WILL ONLY GET WORSE,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
The latest deal comes after months of negotiations over a ceasefire led in part by U.S. Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff.
In May, the White House submitted an Israeli-approved proposal for a 60-day ceasefire to Hamas, but the deal stalled.
At the time, Trump urged both Israel and Hamas to make a deal ahead of and during his first foreign policy trip of his second term in office to the Middle East. Ultimately, a deal was not reached, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ramped up attacks on Gaza after Trump left the region
In January, a six-week temporary ceasefire went into effect, resulting in the release of dozens of captives held by Hamas and an exchange of Palestinian prisoners.
However, that ceasefire ended on March 18 when Israel resumed military operations against Hamas in Gaza, with Israel citing the failure to release the remaining hostages and saying the military was targeting Hamas terrorists who posed a threat to Israeli troops and citizens.
The Israeli government also imposed a blockade on humanitarian aid entering the Gaza Strip on March 2 that lasted for 11 weeks and ended on May 19.
The Israel-Hamas war has taken a grim human toll. Since the war began, nearly 56,000 people in Gaza have been killed and more than 131,000 have been wounded, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.
The war began on Oct. 7, 2023, when 1,200 people were killed in a Hamas-led terrorist attack on southern Israel. Hundreds more were taken hostage. At least 20 living hostages are believed to still remain in Hamas captivity.
-ABC News’ Diaa Ostaz and Nasser Atta contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — An investigation is underway as to what caused an Air India airliner carrying 230 passengers and 12 crew members to crash shortly after takeoff on Thursday. Both black boxes of the aircraft have been found on Friday, an Indian official confirmed to ABC News.
The boxes — with one being damaged but recoverable — will be investigated in India and U.S. investigators are expected to arrive on Sunday, Shri G.V.G. Yugandhar, director general of India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau, said.
The plane, a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, was en route to the United Kingdom and crashed into a building in India’s Meghaninager area near Ahmedabad airport, leaving 246 dead and at least one surviving passenger, local officials and the airline said. Boeing’s Dreamliner planes had not previously been involved in an incident where passenger fatalities were reported.
“The flight, which departed from Ahmedabad at 13:38 hrs, was carrying 242 passengers and crew members on board the Boeing 787-8 aircraft,” the airline said in a statement on social media. “Of these, 169 are Indian nationals, 53 are British nationals, 1 Canadian national and 7 Portuguese nationals.”
The victims include 241 passengers and crew members, as well as five medical students who were inside the medical college and hospital the aircraft crashed into, according to hospital officials. Many others inside the building were injured — some seriously — and are receiving treatment, hospital officials said.
On Friday, Air India CEO Campbell Wilson confirmed the loss of 241 of the 242 people on board the aircraft, saying those at the airline are “devastated by this loss, and grieve for those affected, their families and loved ones.” He said a technical team is now helping at the crash site and nearly 100 caregivers are providing support to families.
“This morning, I visited the site and was deeply moved by the scenes. I also met key stakeholders in the government and assured them that Air India is committed to full cooperation with those working on the ground, and to the investigations,” Wilson said in a video posted on social media.
The Civil Hospital in Ahmedabad confirmed to ABC News on Thursday that Vishwaskumar Ramesh, one of the passengers on the downed Air India flight, is alive and hospitalized there.
“Everything happened in front of my eyes. I thought I would die,” Ramesh told NDTV in an exclusive interview on Friday. “The side where I was seated fell into the ground floor of the building. There was some space. When the door broke, I saw that space and I just jumped out.”
Officials earlier said no survivors had been expected in the crash. The process of retrieving the bodies of victims is almost complete and DNA profiling of the family members of victims will be done very soon, according to Indian Home Minister Amit Shah.
There were around 125,000 liters of fuel inside the aircraft, with temperatures so high that there was no opportunity to rescue the passengers, Shah said.
The Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation said the plane “fell on the ground outside the airport perimeter” immediately after it departed from the airport. Video from the site appeared to show the jet disappear below the tree line, which was followed seconds later by a ball of fire and a thick plume of gray smoke.
“The tragedy in Ahmedabad has stunned and saddened us,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement on social media on Thursday. “It is heartbreaking beyond words. In this sad hour, my thoughts are with everyone affected by it.”
Air India announced it will organize two relief flights, one each from Delhi and Mumbia, to Ahmedabad for the next of kin passengers and Air India staff.
Tata Group, an Indian multinational conglomerate of companies that owns Air India, said they will provide families of each person who has lost their life in the crash with ₹1 crore (about $116,000) and will also cover the medical expenses of those injured.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Dada Jovanovic, Clara McMichael, Ellie Kaufman, Sam Sweeney and Camilla Alcini contributed to this report.
