Rescuers save 8 people trapped in cable car dangling above canyon in Pakistan
PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Pakistani authorities say all eight people trapped in a cable car suspended high above a canyon have been rescued.
A spokesperson for state-run emergency service says army commandos rescued the six children and two adults after an hourslong operation.
Bilal Faizi said both troops and civilian rescuers took part in the effort.
The rescue transfixed the country, with Pakistanis crowding around televisions in offices, shops, restaurants and hospitals.
One of the cables snapped while the cable car was crossing a river canyon in Battagram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. The children had been on their way to school.
Villagers frequently use cable cars to get around Pakistan’s mountainous regions. But the cars are often poorly maintained, and every year people die or are injured while traveling in them.
Italy is investigating a cable car disaster that killed 14 people after a cable snapped. The only person to survive the crash is a 5-year-old boy.
Helicopters were sent to attempt to pluck the people from the cable car — but only after the group spent six hours precariously suspended 1,150 feet above ground, according to Taimoor Khan, a spokesman for the disaster management authority.
Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, wrote on X that he ordered authorities “to urgently ensure safe rescue and evacuation of the 8 people.”
“I have also directed the authorities to conduct safety inspections of all such private chairlifts and ensure that they are safe to operate and use,” he said on the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Investigators found that a clamp deactivated the emergency brake on the cable car, which went careering down the mountainside after a cable snapped.
In 2017, 10 people were killed when a cable car fell into a ravine hundreds of feet deep in the popular mountain resort of Murree after its cable broke.
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