At least 14 people died and three were seriously injured on Sunday when a cable car linking Italy's Lake Maggiore with a nearby mountain in the Alps plunged 20 metres to the ground, local officials and rescuers said, APA reports quoting Reuters.
The Stresa-Mottarone cable car takes tourists and locals from the town on Lake Maggiore, almost 1,400 metres above sea level to the top of the Mottarone mountain in 20 minutes.
"We are devastated, in pain," Marcella Severino, Stresa's mayor told national broadcaster RAI, while Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi voiced his condolences to the families of the victims, "with a special thought" for the injured children.
The accident happened as the cable car was travelling up the mountain, with the cabin dropping some 20 metres and rolling several times down the steep slopes before it was stopped by trees, Severino said.
16:43
At least eight people have been killed after a cable car fell near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy, APA reports citing BBC.
Local emergency services said the accident happened on a service transporting passengers from the resort town of Stresa in the Piedmont region.
Alpine rescue and air helicopter emergency services have responded to the accident.
Italian media reported two children were taken from the scene to hospital.
An image posted on social media by emergency services showed the wreckage of the cable car lying in a wooded area.
The service's website says the cable car usually takes 20 minutes to transport passengers 1,491m (4,900ft) above sea level up the Mottarone mountain.
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