On Sunday, emergency services said that thirteen people died and two children were seriously injured in Italy when a cable car slammed into the side of a mountain in northern Italy.
On Twitter, the Alpine rescue service said that the toll could rise further from the accident in Stressa which is a resort town on the shores of Lake Maggiore in the Piedmont region of Italy.
A spokesman said that two children age five and nine had been seriously injured and were taken by helicopter to a pediatric hospital in Turin.
Profound grief was expressed by Prime Minister Mario Draghi in a statement where he offered his condolences to the families of the victim.
Stressa is linked with the 1500-meter summit of the Mottarone mountain with the 20-minute cable car ride and offers a spectacular view of the Alps.
In a statement, the ministry of infrastructure said that the accident occurred around 12:30 pm as the cabin, with 11 people aboard, was about 100 yards from the summit.
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CAUSE OF THE ACCIDENT IN ITALY
According to the ministry, there was a ruptured cable near the top of the route which appears to have been the cause of the accident in Italy.
Alberto Cirio, regional president, said that he was devastated at what he termed as an enormous tragedy which took their breaths away.
It was noted by Giovanni Toti, the president of the neighboring region of Liguria, that the tragedy had occurred just as Italy was emerging from months of restrictions related to COVID. He said that Sunday as opposed to being having been a day of re-opening rich in hope.
A tweet in Italian was offered by Charles Michel, European Council President, where he expressed his most sincere condolences to the friends and families who had lost a loved one in the tragic accident.
Debris from the red and white cabin was shown by the fire service, in the midst of a steep wooded area where access appeared difficult.
Between 2014 and 2016, the cable car was closed for maintenance work. A number of similar cable car accidents have been seen by Europe over the past 50 years.
On September 5, 2005, no German skiers were killed when an 800-kilo concrete block fell from a helicopter transporting it near the popular Austrian Tyrol resort of Soelden onto a cable carrying their cabin.
A low-flying US military jet severed a cable at Cavalese in February 1998 which is a ski resort in the Dolomites of Italy which killed 20 people.
Killing 42 people, Cavalese was also the scene of a 1976 disaster when a steel supporting cable broke.
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SKY television was told by Severino that some of the victims had been found trapped inside the car while others were thrown out into the woods. She added that an adult, another injured, had also been taken to hospital by helicopter.
She said that coroners had started identifying the victims which included foreign nationals, she did not give further details.
A fire brigade spokesman, Luca Cari, said that it was still not clear how many people were in the cable car. Car added that their teams were still pulling bodies out.
Following the gradual lifting of coronavirus restrictions, the Stressa- Mottarone lift had only recently re-opened.
Among the tourists, the Mottarone peal is popular because of its panoramic views on Lake Maggiore and its picturesque islands as well as the vista of the surrounding Alps.
Its website said that the cable car service first opened in August 1970 after almost three years of works to replace a cog railway.
On Twitter, the Alpine rescue service said that the toll could rise further from the accident in Stressa which is a resort town on the shores of Lake Maggiore in the Piedmont region of Italy.