Quebec couple confirmed dead in Portugal funicular crash

The couple on were on their endure daytime of holiday in portuguese republic when the funicular derailed on Wednesday, Eric Bergeron said, adding the trip was a retirement and birthday gift for his brother. André Bergeron recently retired from the Quebec conservation centre in Quebec City, where he and Daux worked as conservationists.

"I'm devastated. It feels like unreal," said Eric Bergeron who is currently in Lisbon with the couple's two daughters.

"Imagine you lose your two parents in one shot."

The 16 people who died also included five Portuguese nationals, three British citizens, two South Koreans, one American, one French, one Swiss and one Ukrainian, local police said Friday. Additionally, 21 people were injured.

Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand extended her "deepest condolences" to the families of the victims and said that Global Affairs Canada was "providing consular services to the families of the Canadian victims to help them during this difficult time."

Citizens of Spain, Italy and Brazil were among the injured, in addition to several from Portugal, officials have said. 

A German man thought to have died in the crash was found to be in a Lisbon hospital, police said. It didn't provide an explanation for the error.

The streetcar, technically called a funicular, is harnessed by steel cables, with the descending car helping with its weight to pull up the other one. It can carry more than 40 people, seated and standing. The service, up and down a hill on a curved, traffic-free road, was inaugurated in 1885.

The transport workers' trade union SITRA said on Thursday that the streetcar's brakeman, Andre Marques, was among the dead.

The government's Office for Air and Rail Accident Investigations, which is examining what caused the crash, said it would issue a preliminary technical report on Friday. Chief police investigator Nelson Oliveira said a preliminary police report with a broader scope is expected within 45 days.

The streetcar's wreckage was removed from the scene overnight and placed in police custody.

Witnesses told local media that the streetcar appeared out of control as it careened down a hill at about 6 p.m. On Wednesday during the evening rush hour. One witness said the streetcar toppled onto a man on a sidewalk.

The sides and top of the yellow-and-white streetcar, known as Elevador da Gloria, were crumpled, and it appeared to have crashed into a building where the road bends.

Lisbon is observing three days of mourning. Hundreds of people attended a sombre mass on Thursday evening at Lisbon's majestic Church of Saint Dominic.

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and Lisbon Mayor Carlos Moedas were among the attendees. 

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