Italian Cable Car Accident Kills 13 People
Thirteen people died and two children were seriously injured Sunday when a cable car slammed into the side of a mountain in northern Italy, emergency services said.
The toll could rise further from the accident in Stresa, a resort town on the shores of Lake Maggiore in Italy's Piedmont region, the Alpine rescue service said on Twitter.
A spokesman said two children aged nine and five had been seriously injured and taken by helicopter to a paediatric hospital in Turin.
A statement by Prime Minister Mario Draghi expressed his "profound grief" and offered his condolences to the victim's families.
![The accident occurred by the resort town of Stresa, which lies on the shores of Lake Maggiore in the Piedmont region](https://d.ibtimes.com/en/full/3206306/accident-occurred-resort-town-stresa-which-lies-shores-lake-maggiore-piedmont-region.jpg?w=736&f=ffadc49a5974ca6b7195b30e6b8939bc)
The 20-minute cable car ride, popular with tourists, links Stresa with the 1,500-metre (4,900-foot) summit of the Mottarone mountain, and offers spectacular views of the Alps.
The ministry of infrastructure said in a statement that the accident occurred around 12:30 pm (1030 GMT) as the cabin, with 11 people aboard, was about 100 metres (yards) from the summit.
The ministry said the accident appeared to have been caused by a ruptured cable near the top of the route.
Regional president Alberto Cirio said he was "devastated" at what he termed "an enormous tragedy which takes our breath away."
![The cable car links the town of Stresa with the summit of the Mottarone mountain](https://d.ibtimes.com/en/full/3206309/cable-car-links-town-stresa-summit-mottarone-mountain.jpg?w=512&f=284e98fab6167d3058d64cb155a3f8e5)
Giovanni Toti, president of the neighbouring region of Liguria, noted that the tragedy had occurred just as Italy was emerging from months of Covid-related restrictions. Sunday, he said, was supposed to have been "a day of re-opening rich in hope."
European Council President Charles Michel offered a tweet in Italian expressing his "most sincere condolences to the families and friends who have lost a loved one in this tragic accident."
Fire service images showed debris from the white and red cabin in a steep wooded area where access appeared difficult.
The cable car was closed between 2014 and 2016 for maintenance work.
Europe has seen a number of similar cable car accidents over the past 50 years.
Nine German skiers were killed on September 5, 2005, when an 800 kilo (1,760 lb) concrete block fell from a helicopter transporting it near the popular Austrian Tyrol resort of Soelden onto a cable carrying their cabin.
In February 1998, a low-flying US military jet severed a cable at Cavalese, a ski resort in Italy's Dolomites, killing 20 people.
Cavalese was also the scene of a 1976 disaster when a steel supporting cable broke, killing 42 people.
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