Italy cable car fall: Lone child survivor in family of five recovering in hospital as death toll reaches 14

Country’s prime minister offers condolences to families of victims of mountain tragedy

A cable is thought to have snapped, sending the car reeling back down the line (Getty)

A five-year-old boy is the only survivor of a cable-car disaster in Italy that killed 14 people on Sunday.

The Italian government has launched an investigation into the cause of the tragedy on the Stresa-to-Mottarone line in the northern Piedmont region, while prosecutors seek to establish any criminal blame after the cable car plunged to the ground among mountains.

The one surviving passenger out of 15 believed to have been on board is an Israeli boy, identified by the Israeli foreign ministry as Eitan Biran.

He was conscious on arrival at the Regina Margherita children’s hospital in Turin, but required emergency surgery, and is still in hospital with several broken bones.

His parents, Amit Biran and Tal Peleg-Biran were killed, as well as Ms Peleg-Biran’s grandparents, Barbara and Yitzhak Cohen. The Israeli ministry said the couple had arrived in Italy last Wednesday to visit their granddaughter and great-grandchildren.

Another Israeli-born couple, who lived in the nearby province of Pavia, and their two-year-old son, Tom, also died at the scene.

The Israeli embassy says it is working to help repatriate the bodies.

The rest of the victims were Italian, including one Iran-born man, according to Italian media reports.

One of those killed was a nine-year-old boy, who died in hospital after suffering two cardiac arrests, according to medical officers.

Hospital spokesman Pier Paolo Berra said that after trying to restart his heart several times, “there was nothing more we could do”.

Italy’s transport minister, Enrico Giovannini, has announced a commission investigating the “technical and organisational” causes of the incident.

Preliminary checks of the cable line’s safety and maintenance record show that the whole lift structure was renovated in August 2016 and checked in 2017, the ministry said.

They added that the lift’s cables, including the one that pulls the cars up the mountain and the support cable that holds the cars, were inspected late last year.

Stresa mayor Marcella Severino said it appeared that a cable had snapped and that the car had reeled back down the line until it hit a pylon and fell.

“It was a terrible, terrible scene,” Ms Severino told Italy’s SkyTG24 channel.

The car overturned “two or three times before hitting trees,” she said, adding that some of the bodies had been thrown from it and were found among the trees.

A spokesperson for the Alpine rescue service, Walter Milan, said the cable car “crumpled” after falling from a particularly high point. The car is believed to have fallen at least 50ft.

Italian prime minister Mario Draghi offered his condolences to the victims and their families.

“I express condolences on behalf of the whole government to the families of the victims, with a special thought for the seriously injured children and their families,” he said.