Italy was in shock on Sunday after a cable car crashed to the ground in a northern Italian beauty spot, killing 14 people including a nine-year-old child.
The cable car is believed to have been carrying 15 people on the 20-minute ride between the resort town of Stresa and the Mottarone mountain in the Piedmont region when it plummeted into the woods near Lake Maggiore shortly after midday.
Two children were seriously injured and taken by air ambulance to Regina Margherita children’s hospital in Turin, however a nine-year-old boy died after several attempts to restart his heart failed. “There was nothing more we could do,” said hospital spokesman Pier Paolo Berra. The other child, a five-year-old who arrived at the hospital conscious, remained in a serious condition with brain trauma and broken legs, the Alpine rescue service said on Twitter.
The red and white cable car, which fell about 20 metres and rolled several times before being stopped by tree trunks, was “completely crumpled”, said Walter Milan, a spokesperson for the service.