British tourist Laura Hewlett was enjoying her first visit to Portugal when she attempted to use Lisbon’s Metro underground system on the day of a big football match.
It was on 29 April, when Lisbon football team Benfica played Vitória de Guimarães at their home-ground, the Luz stadium.
Ms. Hewlett believes she caught the train at the São Sebastião station and disembarked at Praça da Espanha.
“Not knowing there was a Benfica game on, I tried to get the Metro with what seemed to be a million football fans”, she tells The Portugal News.
Having lived in London with its daily “madness” on the underground, the 20-year-old thought she would be able to handle the throngs of Lisbon’s Metro on match day.
“But this was not a bit of a crowd. Within minutes of joining the platform I was swallowed into an ocean. The situation wasn’t great, but leaving wasn’t an option as I couldn’t move back for the bodies, and the only way forward was into the track-well itself”, she says.
Ms. Hewlett, who has suffered from panic attacks for the past ten years, as well as acute anxiety and blackouts, recalls how as the trains came and went the jostling among the increasingly hostile crowd escalated to a frenzied boiling point.
Eventually she was swept along with the mass into the already-crowded compartment of a train.
“I could feel the onset of a panic attack but thought I couldn’t ask for help and that made it exponentially worse.”
It is at this point, Ms. Hewlett says, that she would like to “commend the group of people in that cabin.”
“There were so many friendly people around me it was completely overwhelming. The panic attack took hold and as someone’s arm crushed against my chest it obstructed my breathing more and I completely lost control. I could only think of getting out.”
The young Briton recounts how as the shaking took over and she began hyperventilating, the people around her asked what they could do, spoke soothingly and did their utmost to generate some space.
“At the next station, this band of heroes got me out the door despite it being so packed. It took a minute but after some water and some fresh air it felt like the danger went away a bit.”
Among the people that Ms. Hewlett would specifically like to thank are “a lady with dark hair in a denim jacket” and “a man next to me with glasses” on the Metro train; “a kindly doorman” who directed her to her hotel, and a taxi driver by a name similar to ‘Valde’, who “made the world seem okay to be in again by singing and dancing to ‘Like A Prayer’ by Madonna.”
Thanking the “amazing citizens of Lisbon”, she elaborates: “I cannot ever begin to thank all of them. The compassion they showed was amazing even though they didn’t know me from Adam I felt treated like a friend. They are brilliant, brilliant people and I would love to be able to thank them properly.”
Ms. Hewlett returned to the UK this week but, she adds, “I can say with confidence I’ll be back to Lisbon soon. The whole city is beautiful and it clearly rubs off on its citizens!”
However, Ms Hewlett does leave a word of advice for the Lisbon Metro company.
“Sort it out!”, she says, adding: “Maintaining regular service on a match day is bizarre, especially one as big as this and I hope that in years to come you look at the numerous photos that people on the other side of the track took to see the unsafe and frankly embarrassing state your service was in.”

Anyone who recalls or intervened in this episode is invited to contact Ms. Hewlett via Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/laurafranhewlett, or email: laurahewlett@live.co.uk.