bad luck
One dead in cable car accident in southern Turkey
A rescue team works with passengers on a cable car outside Antalya. photo
© Uncredited/IHA/AP/dpa
Many people in Antalya use the sugar festival to take a cable car ride. Then a cabin hits a mast and falls. One person dies, more than 180 are stranded. The rescue operation is underway.
According to the state news agency Anadolu, the cable car was particularly busy because of the sugar festival at the end of the fasting month of Ramadan. One of the cable car masts fell over, a cabin hit it and fell into rocky terrain. Fire brigade, police and rescue teams are in the area.
Antalya’s mayor Muhittin Böcek wrote on X early Saturday morning that rescue efforts for the stranded citizens were continuing. “We continue to work continuously until all evacuations can be carried out safely.” Anadolu reported that during the rescue work, a basket roped down from a helicopter was brought to the cabins into which people had to climb.
According to the operator, the cable car has been in operation since 2017 and consists of 36 cabins. It transports its guests to the summit of Tünektepe at a height of 605 meters. The journey takes around nine minutes. There is space for six people in a cabin. It can transport 1200 people per hour. From the summit there is a view of Antalya and the Mediterranean. Antalya is a popular tourist destination.