Two young children are among 14 people who died when a cable car plunged 65ft to the ground and rolled down a mountainside before slamming into trees.
Of the four families involved in Sunday’s tragedy in Italy’s Western Alps, one was originally from Israel and lost five family members, including a two-year-old boy and an 83-year-old woman, said officials.
A nine-year-old child, who suffered severe head trauma and leg fractures, died after being airlifted to a hospital in Turin and suffering two cardiac arrests.
A five-year-old boy – the only survivor – who was airlifted to the same hospital was in a serious condition after undergoing surgery.
The lift was carrying 15 people when it fell from the highest point of a line that runs between the town of Stresa, on picturesque Lake Maggiore, and the summit of the 4,900-ft Mottarone mountain.
Stresa Mayor Marcella Severino told local media it appeared a cable had snapped close to the route’s final pylon, causing the car to plunge and overturn several times.
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(Image: Vigili del Fuoco/AFP via Getty I)
People hiking nearby heard a loud hiss just before the crash, she said.
The cable car was just 1,000ft from reaching a station at the top of the mountain following a 20-minute journey from the lakeside town.
The line restarted only a month ago following a Covid lockdown.
Ms Severino said that some of the victims had been found trapped inside the car, with others thrown out into the woods.
(Image: Unknown)
(Image: Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The only survivor, a five-year-old boy, was being treated for head, chest and leg injuries in an intensive care unit. He was conscious upon his arrival and spoke Italian.
The climb to reach the Stresa-Mottarone cable car’s wreckage was so steep and difficult that a fire engine overturned trying to get to the scene of the crash, it was reported.
Images from the scene show the red and white cable car lying in a mangled wreck in a wooded area amid broken trees on the steep, mountainside slope, as rescue crews work urgently at the site.
Italy’s government announced that it would set up a commission to investigate the cause of the incident and the state of the cable car and the line prior to the tragedy.
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Valeria Ghezzi, president of a national association of cable car operators, said the line was considered “absolutely safe” and had undergone regular checks and maintenance, La Stampa reported.
A union representing cable car workers said it had raised safety concerns as it asked that “more be done to ensure safety in transport”.
In a statement, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi offered condolences to the victims’ families and said his thoughts were with the two child survivors.
Alberto Cirio, president of the Piedmont region, told local media that he and the community were “shocked” by the tragedy.
(Image: Vigili del Fuoco/AFP via Getty I)
Ms Severino, the mayor of Stresa, told broadcaster RAI: “We are devastated, in pain.
“It’s a terrible moment for me and for our community and I think also for the whole of Italy.
“Especially now that we were just beginning to restart (after the pandemic).”
She said important maintenance works, including changing the cables, had been carried out in recent years.
(Image: Polizia di Stato/AFP via Getty I)
“All of this is hard to believe,” she added.
The cable car’s vast line connects Stresa with the mountain, taking tourists and locals to the top in just 20 minutes with one change required about halfway up.
The lift, owned by the local municipality and operated by a private company, had just recently re-opened on April 24 following the gradual lifting of coronavirus restrictions.
A woman who made the cable car journey up and down the mountain shortly before the tragedy shared details of her close call in a post on Instagram.
(Image: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
(Image: Vigili del Fuoco/AFP via Getty I)
Sharing footage of the ride back to Stresa, she wrote: “At 10 this morning from Stresa we took the cable car to Mount Mottarone.
“The first to go up, the first to go down. Fortunately it was beautiful but a little while ago there was news of a tragedy.
“Thank heaven for us. I’m crying the people who lost their lives shortly thereafter.”
In the immediate aftermath, there was confusion over the number of people on board and the death toll.
(Image: Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)
Initially, reports indicates the cable car was carrying 11 people when it fell, but the figure later increased, along with the number of fatalities as victims were removed from the site.
Walter Milan, a spokesman for the national alpine rescue service, told Italy’s RaiNews24 television that a call for help was received just after midday (10am GMT).
Rescuers found the cable car had fallen from a very high point, landing “crumpled” in the woods below, he added.
Two injured children had been flown by helicopter to a paediatric hospital in the nearby city of Turin, he said.
The rescue effort was hampered by the steep terrain, as the cable car fell into a wooded area that is difficult to access, the broadcaster reported.
The Mottarone peak is popular among tourists because of its panoramic views on Lake Maggiore and its picturesque islands as well as the vista of the surrounding Alps.
The cable car service first opened in August 1970 after almost three years of works to replace a cog railway, its website said.
The dual cable system is split into two sections.
One is slightly more than a mile between Stresa and Alpino and the other is just lese than two miles Alpino and Mottarone.
It consist of two cars – in alternate directions – with each one carrying up to 40 passengers, it added.
The Stresa-Mottarone cable car was closed in 2014 for maintenance work, and reopened in 2016, local media reported.