Eight people – six students and their two teachers – are trapped in an elevator in the North Pakistan, at a height of 274 meters above a canyon, when he was suddenly put out of action. A military helicopter took off to rescue them, which was however made difficult by the strong winds blowing in the area. In Pakistan, such lifts, powered by cables or sometimes just ropes, are often used to connect isolated villages in mountainous areas.
The children, who have been trapped there since around 07:00 am (local time) were using the lift to go to their school in the mountainous area of Batagram. which is located at a distance of almost 200 kilometers north of the capital Islamabad.
“An elevator cable snapped, trapping people 274 meters above the ground,” Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Agency said in a statement.
According to the same source, the army helicopter went to the area to attempt a rescue after efforts to repair the damage failed.
The open aerial lift stopped halfway over a canyon and was hanging by a single cable when the second one broke, a rescue official, Sharik Riaz Khattak, told Reuters.
The rescue operation is complicated not only by the strong winds in the area, but also by the risk that the helicopter’s propellers will further destabilize the lift, he explained himself. A helicopter has already carried out a surveillance flight and then returned, while another helicopter will go to the area soon, the official added.
Mountain dwellers in northern Pakistan often use cable cars to move from one village to another.
Residents, who manage the cable car themselves, had to resort to mosque loudspeakers to alert officials on the other side of the valley, in this area without a road or bridge.
The cabin, open on two sides, was already in the air for nearly four hours when the military helicopter arrived at the scene, according to images from local TV channels. “We have been stuck in the sky for almost five hours,” a man inside told Geo News by phone in the cabin named Gulfraz.
As Ali Asghar Khan, headmaster of a public school in the city, told AFP, “The parents are gathered where the gondola is. What should they do? They are waiting for the rescuers to get their children out of there. We are all worried.”
Acting Prime Minister of Pakistan Anwan-ul-Haq-Khaqar expressed concern in a post on the X (formerly Twitter) platform. “I have instructed the authorities to carry out safety inspections on all lifts of this type and guarantee that they are safe to operate and use”he said in his post.
Source: News Beast
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