2023-08-22 09:20:02
PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani emergency teams launched a rescue operation to try to save six children and two men who were trapped on a chairlift following one of its cables snapped Tuesday, leaving the ski lift to high altitude in the northwest of the country.
The chairlift crosses a river canyon and connects villages in the Battagram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Residents use it to cross the river and shorten the distance to nearby schools, government offices and other businesses.
The chairlift hung 1,150 feet (350 meters) above the ground for six hours before a helicopter was sent to the area to try to free the eight trapped, said Taimoor Khan, a spokesman for the disaster management agency.
The country’s acting prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, ordered the rescue with the helicopter, Khan said.
Many of those who live in the highlands of Pakistan use these types of chairlifts to reduce distances and get around, and an unknown number of people are killed or injured each year in incidents related to the poor state of the system.
Ten people were killed when a cable car installed by residents in the popular mountain resort of Murree broke and they fell down a ravine hundreds of meters deep in 2017.
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