Child among 14 dead after cable car falls in Italy
ITV News' Mark McQuillan reports on the accident and the questions being asked in its aftermath
14 people, including a child, have been killed after a cable car taking visitors to a mountaintop view of lakes in northern Italy plunged to the ground.
The car fell on Sunday near the summit of the Mottarone peak, overlooking Lake Maggiore. It is thought to have fallen around 15 metres, according to Italian media. By the evening, the death toll had risen to 14 after one of two children taken to Turin’s Regina Margherita children’s hospital passed away.
The child died after several attempts to restart his heart failed. The other young child, who arrived at the hospital conscious, remained in serious condition, authorities said.
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Local mayor Marcella Severino said it appeared that a cable broke, sending the car careening until it hit a pylon and then fell to the ground. At that point, the car overturned “two or three times before hitting some trees,” she said.
Some of those who died were thrown from the cabin. The plunge on the the Stresa-Mottarone line happened about 100 metres before the final pylon, said Walter Milan, spokesman for Italy’s Alpine rescue service.
He said the cable line had been renovated in 2016 and had only recently reopened after coronavirus lockdowns forced the closures of ski lifts across Italy.
Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day in the area, and Mr Milan said that many families were taking advantage of the weather to enjoy a day out after months of lockdown.
Italy only reopened a few weeks ago, allowing travel between regions after a winter of Covid-19 restrictions.
Mottarone reaches a height of 1,491m (4,900ft) and overlooks several picturesque lakes and the surrounding Alps of Italy’s Piedmont region.
The trip up the mountain from the base at the lake features a cable car to get up halfway and then a chairlift to reach a small amusement park, Alpyland, further up that has a children’s rollercoaster offering 360-degree views of the scenery.
The site offers mountain bike paths and hiking trails, as is common for many Italian mountain areas that are popular with tourists and locals in spring and summer.
The Stresa-Mottarone cable car line advertises a panoramic, 20-minute trip up the mountain, offering a view of seven lakes at the peak.
It appeared to be Italy’s worst cable car disaster since 1998 when a low-flying US military jet cut through the cable of a ski lift in Cavalese, in the Dolomites, killing 20 people.
Italy’s transport minister, Enrico Giovannini, was following the rescue effort, which involved the deployment of three helicopters to the mountainside.
It is the latest incident to raise questions about the quality of Italy’s transport infrastructure. In 2018, the Morandi bridge in Genoa collapsed after years of neglect, killing 43 people.