December 30, 2025, 2:15 p.mDecember 30, 2025, 4:13 p.m
Four people were slightly injured in an accident on a cable car in the Italian Alps and almost 100 people were subsequently evacuated from a high-altitude ski resort.
As the mountain rescue service announced, a cable car cabin crashed at high speed into the barrier of the mountain station not far from the municipality of Macugnaga on the border with Switzerland.
According to the mountain rescue service, the injured were immediately evacuated by helicopter from the mountain station at an altitude of around 2,800 meters. As the Italian fire department announced, the injured were three gondola passengers and a cable car employee.
Almost 100 skiers and hikers were stranded at the mountain station for several hours. Since the cable car was taken out of service, people had to be flown away gradually in helicopters in a lengthy operation. According to authorities, the operation went without incident.
The cause of the accident was probably a technical problem
«We were almost there when we saw that the cabin was speeding up. Then we hit the concrete and fell on top of each other,” the newspaper “Corriere della Sera” quoted a cable car passenger as saying. “There were a few seconds in which we didn’t understand what exactly happened.”
The head of cable car operator Macugnaga Trasporti e Servizi, Filippo Besozzi, told the newspaper that the accident was caused by a technical problem due to which the cabin did not brake sufficiently when entering the station and therefore crashed into the barrier.
The cable car in question originally dates from 1962, but was extensively modernized at the beginning of 2023. Among other things, engines, rollers and also the cabins were replaced. According to the authorities, the renovation cost around two million euros (1.86 million francs). The exact cause of this morning’s accident is now being investigated by the authorities. (sda/dpa)
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