The fall of a cable car cabin left nine dead and two seriously injured, Sunday, May 23, in Stresa, a seaside resort in Piedmont located on the shores of Lake Maggiore, in northern Italy, according to Agence France- Hurry. “Two wounded were evacuated by helicopter in absolute urgency to the Regina Margherita pediatric hospital in Turin”said Walter Milan, an emergency spokesperson, adding that they were two children, nine and five years old.
The accident occurred around 12:30 p.m. (local time) 100 meters from the summit station, according to a press release from the Ministry of Infrastructure. It would be due to a broken cable, on the highest part of the course, which caused the cabin in which were eleven people to fall, according to the Italian press agency ANSA. On Twitter, the Alpine rescue services confirmed “A serious accident” and the intervention of two helicopters on the site, without specifying the number of victims.
Of images of firefighters show the debris of the cabin in a wooded area, which is difficult to access due to its steep incline. The intervention of rescue teams is still ongoing. Popular with tourists, the cable car connects the village of Stresa to Mount Mottarone in twenty minutes, which, reaching a height of almost 1,500 meters, offers spectacular views of the Alps. It had been closed between 2014 and 2016 for maintenance work.