All 8 passengers, including six children, rescued from cable car in Pakistan

(Update: adds info of completed rescue mission)

Islamabad, Aug 22 (EFE).- Pakistani authorities on Tuesday successfully completed the rescue of eight people, including six children, who were trapped for more than 12 hours in a cable car that was left hanging over a ravine after two cables snapped.

The accident occurred at 8am in Allai, in a mountainous area in northern Pakistan, leaving the cable car dangling in the air.

“Relieved to know that Alhamdolillah all the kids have been successfully and safely rescued. Great team work by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as the local people,” Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, Anwaarul Haq Kakar, said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Pakistan’s army said the operation was one of “unprecedented difficulty.”

Rescue teams had managed to get the first two people out using helicopters from which the authorities hung a rope with a sling, to which the passengers were tied, one by one, and lifted into the aircraft.

But that operation was hampered by strong wind gusts created by the helicopter’s propellers which caused the cable car to wobble, as seen in footage broadcast on television.

The helicopters had to suspend operations after nightfall, with rescue efforts then carried out through “alternative means,” state broadcaster PTV News reported, including a zip line. EFE

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