A cable car carrying passengers in a mountainous region of southern Turkey broke a component after hitting a part of the steel system that held it up on Friday, sending its eight terrified occupants tumbling to the rocky side below.
One passenger was killed, seven were injured and about two hundred more were trapped in other open-air cabins, some overnight and then for hours Saturday afternoon as rescuers scrambled to free them from the damaged line.
Helicopters, cranes and rescue teams were deployed at the scene to evacuate a total of 174 people, Turkey’s interior minister said. Among those affected were children, citizens and foreign tourists trapped in huts, a few dozen meters above the ground, in the Sarisu Domain of Antalya province, officials said.
Thirteen other people were taken to hospital for treatment, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on social media.
Cable cars transport passengers to a point high on the steep, tree-covered mountain that offers stunning perspectives of the hills, the city of Antalya, and the Mediterranean Sea. Friday night would likely have been a particularly busy night for tourism; The weekend began with Muslims celebrating Eid, the multi-day holiday that marks the end of Ramadan.
Around 6 p. m. local time on Friday, a component of the vehicle’s pole broke and hit one of the cabins, shattering the cabin and throwing its eight passengers onto the rocky ground as the ground they were on collapsed, the Demirren news company reported.
One passenger who fell from the damaged cable car, a 54-year-old man, died at the scene and seven others were injured, Demiroren said. At least three other people were wounded in the rescue operation, Antalya Mayor Muhittin Bocek said. journalists on the ground.
Footage from the scene showed the damaged car, with no floor and damaged windows, hanging several feet off the ground in the evening twilight. Other huts, many with occupants still shaken inside, stretched out in front of them and over the long wires of the line. hanging like a small orange culmination of a vine over the rocks and trees below.
Tall cranes rose near some of the cars, stretching to catch up with them. In others, emergency workers dressed in climbing helmets climbed ropes to help trapped occupants. Wire baskets were used to evacuate the injured by helicopter.
In one case, a passenger dressed in high-heeled sandals and carrying a small child strapped to her chest was evacuated with protective straps and slowly lowered to the ground. A lifeguard climbed onto the cable car as she evacuated, while the other passengers waited for her turn inward.
Rescuers managed to evacuate another 137 people overnight and Saturday morning, and officials said they finally ended the operation Saturday afternoon, nearly a day after the crash halted vehicles on the line.
By noon, passengers in five cabins were still waiting to be evacuated in what was a methodical and damaging task.
“There’s volatile air and there’s wind,” Okay Memis, head of Turkey’s emergency agency, said in a televised address, adding that it made it difficult for helicopters to fly nearby. very steep area. “
Memis said that on the track they were in constant contact with the stranded cyclists.
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into the crash, Turkey’s justice minister said, and experts have been tasked with uncovering the underlying cause and any responsibility.
All 24 cabins of the cable car line were in the air when the twist of fate occurred. Most of the small cars, of which it has a nominal capacity of 8 people, were carrying adults and children. The line opened in 2017, starting near a picnic domain and provides direct access to the observation deck, shops, and a café at the top.
Bocek, whose municipality operates the cable line, said in a televised address that weekly and monthly maintenance of the cable line had been completed.
The last annual edition took place between Feb. 19 and March 4 this year, said Deniz Yavuzyilmaz, an official with Bocek’s political party.
This article gave the impression of being in the New York Times.