Eight people, including six children, got stuck inside a cable car Tuesday in a remote mountainous area in northwestern Pakistan, official sources said, as heavy winds hampered the helicopter rescue mission.
The children were using the cable car to reach school, when it was suspended at an altitude of about 365 meters as a result of one break from a pair of cables working to raise the cable car.
In an interview with “Agence France Presse”, Abdul Basit Khan, a senior official in the emergency services in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, said, “The cable car is attached to a cable. At least 8 passengers, most of them students, were stuck inside it.”
The National Disaster Management Authority said in a statement that 6 children and two adults were stuck in the cable car cabin, noting that the army issued an order to rescue them.
“We asked the provincial government to provide us with a helicopter because the rescue operation is not possible without it,” said Syed Hammad Haider, another senior official in the province.
But even with a helicopter sent to the scene, the task seems daunting.
The rescue official at the site, Riaz Khattak’s partner, told Reuters that the cable car had become stuck halfway through a valley, hanging by one cable after the other cable was severed.
The rescue mission is complicated by gusty winds in the area, he added, adding that the wind blown by the helicopter’s propeller threatens to further destabilize the cable car.
Anxious crowds gathered on both sides of the valley, which is several hours from the nearest major city.
The “Cable Car of Terror” afflicts its passengers
Television images showed a Pakistani army helicopter flying near the suspended cable car, and officials said that one of the helicopters detected the situation and returned, and another will be dispatched.
Interim Pakistani Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar expressed his concern in a tweet on the “X” platform, previously “Twitter”.
“I also directed the authorities to conduct safety inspections of all these vehicles, and to ensure that they are safe to operate and use,” he said.
People in the northern mountainous regions of Pakistan often use the cable car to get from one place to another.
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2023-08-22 10:42:29
