A group of eight people, mostly children, were trapped on a cable car nearly 300 meters high in Pakistan after a cable snapped.
The country’s authorities have mobilized a rescue operation – hampered by the strong winds that hit the mountainous region. Two children have already been rescued.
See below for everything we know so far about this case.
How did the group get trapped?
In the remote, mountainous region of Battagram City in northwest Pakistan, two communities are connected by a cable car.
Many children living in remote and mountainous parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province rely on cable cars to get to and from school. Some of them lack regular maintenance and can be a risky way to travel.
This Tuesday morning (22), a group of seven children and one adult were traveling to a school when one of the cable car cables broke, according to the country’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA).
That’s how the cable car with eight people ended up stuck in the middle of a ravine, about 274 meters high, hanging from a single cable.
The figure of seven students and one adult was reported to Reuters by Muzaffar Khan, a district administration official in Battagram, updating earlier reports of six students and two teachers.
Abdul Nasir Khan, a local resident, told Reuters the children were going to secondary school.
How will the rescue be done?
Pakistani authorities mobilized two army helicopters to rescue the children and adults trapped on the cable car.
A rescue officer at the scene, Shariq Riaz Khattak, told Reuters that the rescue mission was complicated due to strong winds in the area and the fact that helicopter blades could further destabilize the ropeway.
Aircraft are hovering near the stranded cable car and so far two rescue attempts have been aborted. A third attempt will be launched soon, he said, adding that a cable about 9 meters above the cable car is preventing the operation.
Soldiers hanging from a helicopter managed to get close to the cable car, but were unable to rescue the people on board. At least food and medicine were delivered.
See also: Tourists rescued from cable car in India
Bilal Fiazi, spokesman for the 1122 rescue service, said the terrain is difficult, due to high peaks and a river that runs through the valley.
A safety official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that after a final attempt by helicopter, efforts will likely be transferred to the ground as darkness and weather conditions are increasing the risks, and the cable car starts to shake when the helicopter approaches.
Pakistan’s time zone is eight hours ahead of Brasilia time. Sunset is scheduled for around 19:00 (11:00 GMT).
There, crowds of villagers gathered on the steep hillside anxiously watching the operation.
Pakistan’s acting Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar has ordered all “dilapidated and non-compliant cable cars” to close immediately, according to a statement from his office.
“I have also instructed the authorities to carry out safety inspections of all these privately owned ropeways and ensure that they are safe to operate and use,” Kakar wrote on Twitter.
What is the status of the children?
Two of the students on the cable car are drifting in and out of consciousness, one of the passengers told Pakistani media Geo News.
The passenger, identified only as Gulfaraz, urged state authorities to take action as soon as possible. “Our situation is precarious, for God’s sake, do something,” Gulfaraz told the local television channel by telephone.
He complained that the students, aged between 10 and 15, do not even have drinking water.
Rescue officers were able to deliver nausea medicine after reports of vomiting among the children, as well as heart medicine.
Rescue efforts have paralyzed the country, which is following the situation on television sets.
“We are looking at them helplessly but we cannot help,” a local resident told Reuters.
* Posted by Léo Lopes, with information from Reuters’ Mushtaq Ali and Asif Shahzad and CNN’s Sophia Saifi, Rhea Mogul and Irene Nasser
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