A dramatic rescue operation on the gondola of a cable car has had a happy ending for six children and two adults in Pakistan. In the late evening hours, helpers brought the last passengers to safety, who had endured more than 15 hours hanging from a single rope hundreds of meters above the ground. Two other steel cables on the gondola had previously torn.
The BBC showed a video, on which dozens of people stand at a cable car station. Between the adjacent coniferous trees, two helpers are getting closer and closer to the station, hanging from special brackets in the ropes. They have with them two of the rescued children. People film the scene with their smartphones. Occasionally “Allahu akbar” (“God is great”) is heard.
Army special forces had worked until nightfall to free the inmates in the valley in the north of the country. They also succeeded with two children. With dusk, the army broke off official work. However, brave local residents are continuing the rescue operation – after close consultation with military experts, it said – while the nation awaits the rescuers with anticipation. They used devices on the wire to get to the gondola and first freed three other children and then the remaining occupants.
Hundreds of people, including relatives, gathered not far from the scene of the accident. An eyewitness described the emergency as the toughest day of his life. “Mothers, fathers and other relatives had their eyes on the gondola floating in mid-air,” the local resident said. When the first child was brought to safety, everyone broke out in cheers.
After being rescued, the young people, who had to wait for hours in a gondola, receive help from villagers.
(Photo: Nazir Mahood/dpa)
A 20-year-old told the Pakistani TV station Geo TV from the gondola the dramatic hours. “We don’t even have drinking water,” complained the young man. The soldiers finally provided the passengers with water. According to the interviewed passenger, a 16-year-old with heart problems collapsed and passed out for several hours. The boy was on his way to a clinic in the morning.
Acting Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar called for a safety audit of private cable cars in the country. “I was relieved to learn that all children were successfully and safely rescued. Great teamwork from the military, emergency services, county government and local community,” he later wrote on X, formerly Twitter. In the northern mountainous regions of Pakistan, many residents use cable cars every day on their way to school or work, for example to cross valleys or rivers. The railways are often poorly maintained, but the road network is also poorly developed.
After the near miss, Pakistan’s president is calling for an investigation into the country’s cable cars. “I have to thank everyone, our military personnel, the local rescue workers and the entire administration, for their commitment and bravery in this extremely critical rescue,” wrote Arif Alvi on X. Now a “comprehensive investigation” of all facilities in the region is needed.