Pakistan mounts efforts to rescue 6 children and 2 men trapped in a chairlift

PESHAWAR, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani emergency workers launched a rescue operation to try and save six children and two men trapped in a chairlift after one of its cables snapped off on Tuesday, leaving it dangling high above ground in the country’s northwest.

The chairlift was installed across a river canyon, connecting villages in Battagram district in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. It was used by local villagers to cross the river and shorten the distance to nearby schools, government offices and other businesses.

Taimoor Khan, a spokesman for the disaster management authority, said the chairlift had been dangling 350 meters (1,150 feet) above ground for six hours before a helicopter was dispatched to the site to try and pluck the eight out of the chairlift.

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar ordered the helicopter rescue, Khan said.

Many villagers in Pakistan’s mountainous regions use such chairlifts to shorten distances and travel and an unspecified number of people die or are injured each year in incidents involving the poorly maintained chairlifts.

Ten people were killed when a cable car lift installed by local villagers in the popular mountain resort of Murree broke and fell into a ravine hundreds of feet deep in 2017.