A cable car carrying eight people, including six school children, dangled hundreds of feet above the ground after its wires snapped on Tuesday morning in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Battagram district. A drone footage captured the harrowing moments of people trapped inside the broken cable car were captured. All the people were rescued after 15 hours.
The children were using the cable car to get to school when the chairlift broke at a height of around 1,200 feet midway through its journey in the remote Allai Tehsil in KPK province, as per an AFP report. Teams of Pakistan Army are present in the area to rescue those stuck for more than seven hours now. Earlier, two helicopters of the Pakistan Army and Pakistan Air Force reached the spot for rescue operation and two attempts have been made but the strong air current from helicopters could make the task difficult. One of the heliicopters has now moved away while the second one is hovering over the cable car, reported Dawn.
Associated Press quoted an expert who warned that the rescue was incredibly delicate because the wind created by the helicopters’ blades could further weaken cables holding the car aloft.
"This is a delicate operation that demands meticulous accuracy. The helicopter can not approach the chairlift closely, as its downwash (air pressure) might snap the sole chain supporting it," Tanveer Ur Rehman, a local government official, told AFP.
Meanwhile the occupants stuck inside the cable car frantically call for help. "The evening is coming nearer. Tell us why the helicopters are going back?" Gul Faraz, one of the adults stuck in the cable car, said to AFP by phone. "For God's sake help us," he earlier told local media.
"Every time the helicopter lowered the rescuer closer to the chairlift, the wind from the helicopter would shake and disbalance the chairlift making the children scream in fear," Ghulamullah, chairman of the Allai valley area, told Geo News. Another team of the Pakistan Army’s Special Services Group (SSG) has now been pressed to the spot, added the Dawn report.
Assistant Commissioner Jawad Hussain confirmed the update who confirmed the update to Dawn also said that troops of the military’s rapid response force are also on the ground.