Pakistan cable car – live: 15-year-old survivor says dramatic rescue gives him ‘a second life’
Rescuers pulled those trapped along zipwire by hand after military helicopters stood down for night
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Your support makes all the difference.A student who was stuck in a cable car suspended over a ravine in northwest Pakistan has spoken out about the 15-hour ordeal.
“I thought it was my last day and I will be no more,” Attaullah Shah was quoted as saying by AFP.
The 15-year-old, one of seven students travelling on the chairlift when one of its cables snapped, expressed gratitude for having survived the incident. “God has granted me a second life,” he said.
The families of the students rescued from the broken-down cable car erupted with joy as the last child was freed late last night, an official said.
Night fell as the first of the students was rescued and it was several more hours until the cable car was finally cleared of passengers.
“People kept praying until the last person was rescued,” emergency official Waqar Ahmad told AFP. “Once everyone had been rescued, the families started crying with joy and hugging each other.”
Pakistan’s government confirmed the rescue mission was complete some 15 hours after the car first got stuck, and declared inspections of cable cars will be carried out across the country.
After the rescue ‘families started crying with joy and hugging each other’
“People had been constantly praying because there was a fear that the rope might break. People kept praying until the last person was rescued,” emergency official Waqar Ahmad was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
“Once everyone had been rescued, the families started crying with joy and hugging each other.”
Eight individuals, seven of them students, were successfully rescued following hours of being stranded at an elevation of several hundred feet above a secluded valley in Pakistan on Tuesday.
Pakistan authorities say the rescue operation was 'extremely complicated'
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Public Relations said in a statement that the rescue operation was “extremely complicated and difficult”.
“It was an extremely difficult operation, and Pakistan Army and Pakistan Air Force (PAF) helicopter promptly reached the site and began the operation.
“The Pakistan Army Aviation provided complete technical assistance to the sling team, which made the successful completion of the operation possible,” the statement added.
The cable crossing experts, local residents and the civil administration also assisted in the operation, the statement said.It said the operation was a “unique” one in Pakistan’s history.
Why do people use cable cars in Pakistan
Due to the absence of conventional infrastructure, improvised cable cars are utilised in distant regions of Pakistan. Despite the inherent risks, these cable cars serve as essential transportation solutions for communities with limited alternatives.
According to local media, these makeshift cable cars are commonly employed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit Baltistan, and eastern Mansehra. These regions encounter geographical obstacles and have limited infrastructure, including schools and roads.
Geo TV reported that the necessity of connecting communities in these isolated areas has driven locals to create these cable cars using leftover materials, often without formal permits.
These cable cars are often built by the local communities, primarily from discarded materials like those from pick-up trucks. These cabins are then attached to cables, sometimes made of scrap iron, using ropes.
Battagram incident is not the only accident related to cable cars in Pakistan
While cable cars present a practical solution for the lack of conventional infrastructure in certain regions of Pakistan, safety concerns remain.
In 2017, an illicit cable car in Murree, Punjab, crashed, claiming the lives of 11 passengers.
Just last December, a cable car mishap occurred in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where a rope snapped and 12 children were stranded and had to be rescued.
At least 150 students use cable car every day to reach school
The cable car which got stuck on Tuesday was used by scores of children every day to cross a valley and reach school. A local teacher from Battagram, identified by local media by just his first name Iqbal, said at least 150 students take the cable car to and from school daily.
The chairlift was left dangling from 7am on Tuesday until last night, suspended 900ft above a ravine, after one of its cables snapped.
The teacher explained that due to the lack of road facilities, students have no choice but to take the cable car if they want to reach school.
“There are no other arrangements,” he said.
After Tuesday’s 15-hour ordeal, Pakistan’s government has ordered an investigation into all cable cars nationwide. In remote areas, these modes of transportation are often constructed illegally by locals in the absence of other infrastructure.
A senior official from the region, Sonia Shamroz, highlighted the need to maintain cable cars and chairlifts in the area because of their frequent use and said that it was extremely important since children in these regions use them as their only mode of transport.
In Pictures: How the 15-hour-long ‘unique’ rescue unfolded in Pakistan’s Battagram
In this photo released by Pakistan’s Inter Services Public Relations [ISPR], army soldiers, police officers and local volunteers take part in a rescue operation to save people, trapped in a broken cable car, in Pashto village, a mountainous area of Battagram district in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Tuesday, 22 August 2023. Army commandos using helicopters and a makeshift chairlift rescued eight people from a broken cable car dangling hundreds of meters (feet) above a canyon Tuesday in a remote part of Pakistan, authorities said
Pakistani army soldiers carry out rescue operation for stranded in a chairlift students in Battagram district, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, 22 August 2023. A local Battagram district official said, eight children and one adult were trapped in a chairlift dangling 1,200 feet over a mountainous region in the country’s northwest. The children were travelling to school when one of the chairlift’s cables snapped. The Pakistan military in a statement said all stranded people were safely evacuated form the lift
Youngsters, left, who were trapped in a broken cable car, are surrounded by villagers following their rescue, in Pashto village, a mountainous area of Battagram district in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, late Tuesday, 22 August 2023. Army commandos using helicopters and a makeshift chairlift rescued eight people from a broken cable car dangling hundreds of metres (feet) above a canyon Tuesday in a remote part of Pakistan, authorities said
An aerial view shows a helicopter carrying rescue operation next to the cable car with students stranded mid-air in Battagram, Pakistan, 22 August 2023, in this screen grab obtained from social media video
ICYMI: Eight people trapped in cable car dangling 900ft over Pakistan ravine saved in dramatic rescue
Eight people were pulled to safety on Tuesday after a dramatic rescue effort hauled them from a cable car left dangling 900ft (274m) above a ravine in northwest Pakistan.
One of the two cable lines carrying the car snapped at around 0700 local time [GMT 0200] as seven children were travelling to school alongside one adult in a remote mountainous area in Battagram, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, about 200km (124 miles) north of the capital Islamabad.
Despite a desperate rescue mission, most of the passengers were still trapped well into the night as the car clung to the lone cable, while local residents watched on anxiously from below and crowds gathered around televisions in offices, shops, restaurants and hospitals across Pakistan to watch the operation unfold.
Eight trapped in cable car dangling 900ft over ravine saved in dramatic rescue
Six children and two adults saved in 16-hour long operation
Cable car passenger recalls moment of horror
One passenger on the stranded cable car recalled the moment of horror when the cable snapped yesterday.
The unidentified passenger — one among the eight — told a local TV channel that one of the other students on the cable car, who had a heart condition, fainted as the cable car kept dangling above the deep ravines in northwest Pakistan.
His own mobile battery was “depleting fast” and he had no means left to contact anyone during the initial moments after the cable snapped.
Once the rescue effort ensued, villagers on the ground watched in growing concern as the ordeal dragged on.
“They are in front of us but we are helpless – observing them and unable to provide any help,” Mufti Hasan Zaib, a religious scholar from the village told New York Times. One of his relatives was stranded on the cable car.
Watch: Eight people saved from cable car stuck dangling above canyon in Pakistan
Cause of Battagram cable failure still unknown
The reason for the failure of the Battagram cable car – in which eight people were stranded yesterday — is still unknown.
Interim prime minister Anwaar ul-Haq Kakar expressed concern over the cable car’s failure and urged authorities to conduct safety checks on all private mountain chairlifts.
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