Battagram cable car: all 8 passengers have been rescued, confirms caretaker PM Kakar

All eight passengers have been rescued from the cable car hanging in the air after a cable snapped early morning in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Battagram, Aaj News reported.

Pakistan Army’s Special Services Group (SSG) rescued at least one child in a helicopter operation, which was called off due to nightfall, and later alternative means were used to rescue the remaining stuck people.

Pakistan Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar confirmed that the rescue operation concluded successfully, with all 8 passengers safely rescued.

“Great team work by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as the local people,” the prime minister said in a post on microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter).

Interim Federal Interior Minister Pakistan Senator Sarfraz Bugti also appreciated the armed forces personnel, administration, and locals for the successful operation.

The army along with local authorities conducted the rescue operation that continued for many hours.

Out of the eight people, at least six are thought to be children who were using the chairlift to cross the valley to get to school when a cable broke midway through the journey. The passengers remained stuck at a height of 900 feet since early morning.

Earlier, Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) said in a statement that a cable had broken in the lift service and two army helicopters had been dispatched for a rescue operation after attempts at fixing the fault had been unsuccessful.

The gondola became stranded halfway across a ravine and was dangling by a single cable after the other snapped, Shariq Riaz Khattak, a rescue official at the site told Reuters.

“One child has fainted due to heat and fear,” Khattak said earlier.

The rescue mission had been made complicated due to gusty winds in the area and the fact the helicopter’s rotor blades risked further destabilising the lift, he said. “One chopper has already conducted surveillance and then returned, and another one would be sent shortly.”

People who live in the northern mountainous regions of Pakistan often use chairlifts or cable cars for transport from one area to another.

The accident had happened around 7:00 am, following which residents used mosque loudspeakers to alert neighbourhood officials across the valley.

The NDMA had said it was providing coordination support to KPK’s Provincial Disaster Management Authority (PDMA) while all PDMAs were asked to conduct safety audits on tourist infrastructure in their areas.

“The chairlift accident in Battagram, KP is really alarming. I have directed the NDMA, PDMA and district authorities to urgently ensure safe rescue and evacuation of the 8 people stuck in the chairlift,” Caretaker PM Anawaar-ul-Haq Kakar said on Twitter.

He said he had directed authorities to conduct safety inspections of all such private chairlifts and ensure that they are safe to operate and use.

KPK caretaker Chief Minister Mohammad Azam Khan also took notice of the incident and directed that action be taken on an “emergency basis.”