Two PSP officers were hit and killed by a train today as they chased burglars. The accident happened in Sacavém zone just outside Lisbon.
According to police sources, the two officers were called to help sort out a burglary that had taken place and decided to chase the fleeing suspects along the railway line.
The accident happened when the officers were hit by a Lisbon to Oporto Intercity train near the station at Sacavém. Trains can can reach 200kmph along that stretch of line.
Two of the suspects were nabbed by police colleagues further up the line. The the emergency ambulance service was called but the young offciers were confirmed as dead at the scene.
At the São João da Talha police station, psychologists were on hand to support other policemen on duty who found it hard to come to terms with what had happened, according to Antonio Ramos, vice-chairman of the Union of Police Professionals, who visited the police station after the accident.
One of the victims, aged just 23, had only been on the PSP force for three months. The other, a 26-year-old, had serve for about three years.
PSP officers had gathered at about 11.30, after receiving a report of a burglary at a residence in the area of Bobadela.
Police teams, of uniformed and non-uniformed officers, moved in to locate and arrest the suspects. One was seen fleeing alongside the railway line and was chased by the two policemen.
A police spokesman later said that said two of the suspects were arrested in a field next to the train line. Ivandro Borges, 17, and Sacko Cilá, 19, are well known to the police and previously have been involved in violent robbery, theft and burglary.
The president of the National Police Union, on hearing the news, took the unusual opportunity of highlighting the low wages earned by the police,
"Two policemen lost their lives in exchange for the €800 they earned per month. This is the value of a PSP officer’s life in Portugal."
