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\nMonday, May 24, 2021
\nFourteen people, including at least one child, have been killed and another child is seriously injured after a cable car fell on a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\nMonday, May 24, 2021
\nFourteen people, including at least one child, have been killed and another child is seriously injured after a cable car fell on a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The accident happened on a service transporting passengers from the resort town of Stresa up the nearby Mottarone mountain in the region of Piedmont.<\/p>\n
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\nImages from the scene show the wreckage lying in a steep wooded area.<\/p>\n
Five Israeli nationals were among the dead, Israel’s foreign ministry says.<\/p>\n
Most of the victims died at the crash site, with the death toll steadily rising on Sunday afternoon as the wreckage was searched.<\/p>\n
Officials said two survivors, children aged about five and nine, were airlifted to a hospital in Turin but the older child later died.<\/p>\n
The younger child – who is also an Israeli national – underwent surgery and is in a critical condition.<\/p>\n
“We are devastated,” Marcella Severino, mayor of Stresa, told broadcaster RAI.<\/p>\n
How did the crash happen?
\nIt reportedly happened at about 12:30 local time (10:30 GMT) on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The cause of the incident remains unclear, but local reports suggest the cable may have failed about 300m (984ft) from the top of the mountain.<\/p>\n
The cabin fell about 20m to the ground and rolled over down the slope before being stopped by trees, Mayor Severino said.<\/p>\n
Nearby hikers heard a loud hiss before the accident, she added.<\/p>\n
Walter Milan, an alpine rescue spokesman, told television network RaiNews24 that the cable car was left “crumpled”.<\/p>\n
Police were among emergency service rescuers working at the scene.<\/p>\n
Rescuers faced a crash site on steep and difficult terrain. A fire service vehicle overturned while responding but no-one was injured.<\/p>\n
Stresa’s mayor said victims had been found both inside and outside the wreckage of the cable car.<\/p>\n
Luisa Tesserin, a 27-year-old student from Genoa, told the AFP news agency that she and friends had been on the service about an hour before the crash happened.<\/p>\n
“When we got on, the cable car didn’t give any strange signals, everything was fine. When they told us the news, we were shocked,” Ms Tesserin said.<\/p>\n
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi described the crash as a “tragic accident” and said he was receiving updates from local and national officials.<\/p>\n
“I express the condolences of the whole government to the families of the victims, with a special thought for the seriously injured children and their families,” he said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini has announced an inquiry into the incident with a local prosecutor’s office also opening an investigation.<\/p>\n
EU Council President Charles Michel offered his condolences to the victim’s loved ones in a tweet written in Italian, adding that “Europe is in mourning with you”.<\/p>\n
What do we know about the cable car?
\nThe website for the Stresa-Alpine-Mottarone service said it usually takes 20 minutes to transport passengers 1,491m above sea level.<\/p>\n
The cable car originally opened in 1970 and was closed for maintenance between 2014 and 2016.<\/p>\n
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\nMap showing Italy as well as graphic of the crash site on satellite image<\/p>\n
Mottarone is situated between Lake Maggiore and Lake Orta, offering scenic views of the region for tourists.<\/p>\n
Each cable car can usually hold about 40 passengers. The service had recently reopened following the lifting of coronavirus restrictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Monday, May 24, 2021 Fourteen people, including at least one child, have been killed and another child is seriously injured after a cable car fell on a mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy on Sunday. The accident happened on a service transporting passengers from the resort town of Stresa up the nearby Mottarone mountain […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5061,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-7","category-14"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n