Pakistan cable car rescue: Eight, including six children, trapped

Lenin Kumar

11 months ago

Eight people, including six children, have been trapped in a cable car dangling high above a ravine in Pakistan after a line snapped.

The children were using the chairlift to get to school when a cable broke at a height of around 1,200 feet (about 365 metres) midway through its journey in a remote, mountainous part of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.

Military helicopters are hovering above the cable car and two attempts at a rescue have been aborted, according to an official.

A third will be launched shortly, the official added who said that a cable 30 feet above the cable car is impeding the operation.

Commandos hanging from a helicopter managed to get close to the car, but were unable to rescue those on board. They did manage to deliver food and medicine.

Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority said a cable broke in the lift service and two army helicopters were dispatched for a rescue operation after attempts at fixing the fault had been unsuccessful.

The cable car became stranded half way across a ravine and was dangling by a single cable after the other snapped, Shariq Riaz Khattak a rescue official at the site told Reuters news agency.

One child has been rescued from the dangling cable car, rescue official Bilal Ahmed Faizi told Al Jazeera.

There are seven others still trapped.