(UPDATE) LISBON — Portugal observed a national day of mourning on Thursday after a famous Lisbon streetcar derailed and killed at least 15 people the day before, in the capital’s worst accident in recent history., This news data comes from:http://jx-wc-vh-xddu.redcanaco.com

Authorities have given no information about those killed or the 23 that police said were injured in the mishap, raising the initial casualty toll.

Portugal mourns after Lisbon streetcar accident kills 15

The 19th-century streetcar is one of Lisbon’s big tourist attractions and is usually packed with foreigners at this time of year for its short and picturesque trip up and down one of the city’s steep hills.

Teams of pathologists at the South European country’s National Forensics Institute, reinforced by colleagues from three other Portuguese cities, worked through the night on autopsies, officials said. The injured were admitted to several hospitals in the Lisbon region.

The streetcar’s crumpled wreckage was still on the downtown road where it crashed on Wednesday, cordoned off by police. Officials declined to speculate on whether a faulty brake or a snapped cable may have caused the accident.

The yellow-and-white streetcar, known as Elevador da Gloria, was lying on its side on the narrow road that it traveled on, its sides and top crumpled. It 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 television 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.

The accident occurred at around 6 p.m. (local time), the start of the evening rush hour. Emergency officials said all casualties were pulled out of the wreckage in just over two hours.

The streetcar, technically called a funicular, is harnessed by steel cables and can carry more than 40 people. It is also commonly used by the capital’s residents.

The service, inaugurated in 1885, goes up and down a few hundred meters of a hill on a curved, traffic-free road in tandem with one going the opposite way.

Lisbon’s City Council halted operations of three other famous funiculars in the city while inspections were initiated.

The capital hosted around 8.5 million tourists last year, and long lines of people typically form for the brief rides on the popular streetcar, which was classified as a national monument.

Streetcar operator Carris said scheduled maintenance had been carried out. In a social media post, it also offered its condolences to the victims and their families, and promised that all due diligence would be taken in finding the causes of the accident.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also offered his condolences to the affected families, while Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas said the city was in mourning.

“It’s a tragedy of the like we’ve never seen,” Moedas said.

In announcing the observance of national mourning on Thursday, Portugal’s government said in a statement that the “tragic accident ... dismayed the whole country.”