At least eight people have died and two are seriously injured after a cable car connecting Italy’s Maggiore lake with a mountain close by plunged on Sunday, the national alpine rescue service said.
The Stresa-Mottarone cable car takes tourists and locals from the famous town of Stresa, on lake Maggiore, up almost 1400 metres above sea level to the top of the Mottarone mountain in 20 minutes.
“It is a very serious accident,” Walter Milan, a spokesman for the national alpine rescue service told RaiNews24 television.
He said two children had been transported by helicopter to a pediatric hospital in the northern city of Turin.
The rescue call arrived just after midday and the cable car had fallen from very high and was now sitting, “crumpled” in the woods below, Milan added.
Italian news wire ANSA said the cable car was carrying 11 people before the accident.
The lift had just recently re-opened following the gradual lifting of coronavirus restrictions.