Pakistan rescues 6 children and 2 adults stranded in cable car at 900 feet

[cigaretteman]

This is a developing story.

• At least two of those trapped were rescued, a police official said.
• The cause of the cable car accident remains unclear.
• In a remote area of Pakistan, the cable car “made people’s lives much easier.”

Pakistani officials were scrambling on Tuesday to rescue seven students, including children, and another person who were left hanging dangerously for hours in a cable car high above a deep mountain valley after two of its cables broke.
In a dramatic development, hours after the accident occurred, security forces were able to rescue at least two of the students from the car, according to the local police chief, Tahir Ayub. Video posted on social media showed someone scrambling out of the car and being lifted to safety by rope to a helicopter hovering overhead.
As night fell, helicopter operations were suspended because of bad light, Mr. Ayub said. Officials have instead employed a second, smaller cable car or trolley to try to rescue those trapped, according to local news reports.
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The accident occurred around 8:30 a.m. in Allai, in the Battagram district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province. The cable car, which travels above a stream, is a regular mode of transport for residents of the mountainous northern region, and the students, including children ages 10 to 15, were headed to a nearby school. The car stopped about 900 feet above the ground, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.

Image

A helicopter rescuing a person from the cable car on Tuesday.Credit...Umeed Sahar, via Reuters

As panic gripped the passengers and their families, they issued urgent pleas for assistance. The authorities sent an army helicopter to the site, and video on local television showed it hovering above the cable car at some distance as a commando slid down a rope and delivered food and water.
But as the helicopter tried to get closer to the cable car, the car seemed to begin shaking heavily, which appeared to make an air rescue difficult.

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Before the commando delivered the supplies, one of the passengers told a local TV news network that he and the others had been stuck for more than six hours without food or water. He said that one child with a heart condition had fainted after panicking. “My mobile phone battery is depleting fast,” he said.
The cause of the breakage, which appeared to leave only one cable intact, was unclear. Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, Pakistan’s interim prime minister, called the accident “alarming” as he ordered the rescue operation.

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Mr. Kakar instructed the authorities to carry out safety inspections on all private mountain lifts to ensure their safety, according to a statement from his office.

Mufti Ghulamullah, the mayor of Allai borough, said in a telephone interview, “It is a delicate rescue operation.”
“With each attempt to bring the rescuer closer to the cable car using the helicopter, the gusts of wind from the rotor would jolt and unsettle the chairlift, causing the children to cry out in fear,” he added.

At Least Two Students Rescued From Dangling Cable Car

Eight passengers, including children headed to a nearby school, were left stranded for hours after two cables broke as they traveled high above a valley in a remote, mountainous region of Pakistan.

www.nytimes.com

 

[cigaretteman]

Pakistan’s military has rescued eight people, six children and two adults, who spent hours stuck in agonizing precarity in a cable car suspended at least 900 feet in the air after a cable snapped above a remote mountainous area in the north of the country.

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The army’s Special Services Group rescued two children via helicopter by means of a sling lowered from above, a local official and a spokesman for the provincial emergency services told said. The rest were rescued in a ground-based effort, after the helicopter approach became too dangerous, using a chairlift edged along the intact cable, according to media reports.

The first helicopter rescue took four attempts, said Bilal Faizi, spokesman for the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa region’s 1122 rescue service. A second child was then rescued by the same method, the National Disaster Management Authority said in a statement. Later in the evening, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, the country’s caretaker prime minister, announced that all children aboard had been rescued. He thanks the military and local rescue workers for their efforts. Authorities confirmed that the adults had been rescued as well.

 

[Nole-4-Life]

My fear every time I get on one of those things.