Lisbon/IBNS: The initial probe into the deadly Lisbon funicular accident has found the cable along the railway route gave away before the crash, media reports said.

The cable connecting the two carriages had snapped before the crash that killed at least 16 people in the Portuguese capital, the probe officials said.

"After examining the wreckage at the site, it was immediately determined that the cable connecting the two carriages had given way," the national transport safety office said in a statement as quoted by BBC News.

Beyond 16 deaths, about 20 others were injured as the funicular derailed in central Lisbon in the evening last Wednesday.

Among the deceased, five were Portuguese, three Britons, two South Koreans, two Canadians, one each from the US, Ukraine, Switzerland and France. 

It is still not clear how many of the victims were on the 40-seated carriage that crashed near the busy Praça dos Restauradores at around 6 pm.

One of the two carriages of Lisbon’s Glória Funicular derailed and crashed into a building on a steep, narrow street during evening rush hour.

The probe found the steel cable connecting the two carriages of Glória Funicular got snapped soon after the respective journeys started.

After the cable got snapped, the carriage which was at the top of the street started increasing its speed down the slope and got derailed.

The report, as per initial estimates, said as quoted by CNN, "The first collision occurred at a speed of around 60 km/h (around 37 miles per hour), with all these events having occurred in a timeframe of less than 50 seconds."

The final conclusion is yet to be drawn as further probe is needed, said GPIAAF, the Portuguese aviation and rail accident and incident investigation authority.

The funicular, which operates via a counterbalanced cable system and serves both residents and tourists, is a historic landmark in the city.

About Lisbon funiculars

Opened in 1885, it carries around 3 million passengers annually.

The Lisbon funiculars are historic cable railway systems (also called elevadores) that help people move up and down Lisbon’s steep hills.

They work by using counterbalanced cars connected by a cable—when one car goes up, the other goes down, making it easier to transport passengers along the city’s sloped streets.