Two children who were among eight people trapped for over 12 hours in a cable car dangling 900 feet above the ground in a remote and mountainous part of Pakistan, have been rescued, officials said late Tuesday evening.
The children – between 10 and 15 years old – were using the cable car to get to school when one wire broke, leaving the gondola tilting dangerously and dangling mid-air. Reports vary but there are at least six children on board.
Authorities are battling fear, fatigue and fading light in an ‘extremely dangerous and risky’ rescue op that has been hampered by high winds, and the fate of the children and adults left on board rests on the tensile strength of the second of two cables holding the gondola aloft.
“For God’s sake help us,” Gulfraz, one of the adults, told Pakistan’s Geo News by phone. He confirmed eight people had been on board. “It has been nearly five hours since we were stuck… the situation is so bad one has fainted. A helicopter came (but then) left…”
Two Pakistan Army helicopters had been dispatched to lead rescue ops after cable car officials failed to fix the fault. However, the attempt to airlift occupants out of danger were as quickly suspended amid concerns the aircraft’s rotor blades could destabilise the cable car.
This was after two rescue attempts were launched and aborted. As a result, both helicopters were ordered to hover a safe distance away as authorities worked out a new rescue plan.
It is not known yet how the two children were rescued.
Those on board have been given food, water and medicine after an airman was lowered by harness, Tanveer Ur Rehman, a local government official, told news agency AFP earlier.
“This is a delicate operation that demands meticulous accuracy. The helicopter cannot approach closely as its downwash (air pressure) might snap the sole chain supporting it.”
“Every time the helicopter lowered the rescuer closer, the wind from the helicopter would shake and dis-balance the chairlift making the children scream in fear,” a government official told Geo News.
Abid Ur Rehman, a teacher from another school in the area, said around 500 people had gathered to watch the rescue. “Parents and women are crying for the safety of their children,” he told AFP.
Ali Asghar Khan, the headmaster of the school the trapped children attend, told AFP the school is located in a mountainous area with no safe crossings. “So it’s common to use the chairlift.”
Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar expressed concern in a post on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter. “I have also directed the authorities to conduct safety inspections of all such private chair lifts and ensure that they are safe to operate and use,” he said.
Cable cars that carry passengers and sometimes cars are common across the northern areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Gilgit-Baltistan, and are vital in connecting villages and towns.
In 2017, 10 people were killed when a chairlift cable broke, sending passengers plunging into a ravine in a mountain hamlet near capital Islamabad.
With input from agencies