Naples cable car: British couple among dead as cabin crashes to ground | World | News
At least four people, including two British tourists, have died in a horrific cable car crash in Italy. The cable car came smashing to the ground from a height of 28m at Monte Faito, a popular tourist hotspot near Naples. The Times reports that the Brits who died are a couple.
A third fatality is believed to be Israeli, whilst the fourth victim is understood to be the driver. One more person is “extremely seriously injured” according to authorities who say that firefighters and mountain rescue teams are currently working on site into the night. Umberto De Gregorio, chairman of the EAV public transport company which runs the cable car service took to Facebook to discuss the incident which he called a “tragedy”.
He said: “The cabin at the top has crashed, casualties are feared.”
Footage online from shortly after the incident shows helicopters assisting in the response with bad weather hampering the efforts of rescue services.
The incident happened shortly after 4.30pm local time. The mayor of Castellammare di Stabia said he believed that one of the cables supporting the cabin had snapped.
He told local media: “The emergency brake downstream worked but clearly not the one on the cabin that was about to reach the the top of the hill.”
According to local media, the cabin had been broken down for about an hour prior to the accident.
Media reports claim that passengers were being harnessed to the ground one at a time following the incident which saw the cable cars suspended above the ground.
It is understood that more than a dozen people riding in other cars at the time of the incident are now safe.
Ente Autonomo Volturno had said that all passengers were fine and were “descending safely”, but lost contact with the cable car at the centre of the accident around half an hour later.
The cable car, which runs down Monte Faito, a mountain in the Monti Lattari, close to the Amalfi Coast recently reopened ahead of the summer season.
The attraction is popular with tourists, offering an excellent view of Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples.
The incident is the latest cable car accident to hit Italy in recent years.
In 2021, a cable car linking the northern Lake Maggiore with a nearby mountain plunged to the ground, killing 14 people.
