Pakistan’s military has rescued two children out of eight people trapped in a cable car dangling over a high ravine, after two of its wires snapped early on Tuesday morning, but the air rescue operation was called off as night fell

Flood lights were installed on the ground and the rescue operation was continuing, a security source said.

The army’s quick-response force had been called to the north-western province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where seven students were among eight people stuck in the cable car.

Two children had been rescued, one by one, district official Shah Fahad said. An official had earlier said four children had been rescued.

The first child was rescued by Pakistan Army personnel in a helicopter, a police commissioner said, adding that belts had been delivered to the passengers inside the cable car.

He was rescued with the help of a rope that was hooked onto the belt he was wearing, before he was dropped at a nearby makeshift helipad.

The incident occurred in the Allai sub-district of Battagram between 7am and 8am, when seven students and one teacher were heading to a school.

They got stuck at a height of about 900m when two wires of the cable car snapped, Allai chairman Mufti Ghulamullah said, adding that the cable car was privately run by locals to cross the river as there are no roads or bridges in the area. State media, however, gauged that the cable car was stuck at a height of around 300m.

The rescue effort has transfixed the country, with Pakistanis crowded around television sets as local media showed footage of an emergency worker dangling from a helicopter cable close to the small cabin, with those onboard cramped together.

Crowds of villagers gathered on the hillside anxiously watching the operation.

Allai Assistant Commissioner Jawad Hussain told Dawn.com news website that the local administration and rescue teams were on site and were trying to spread nets under the cable car.

But due to the height and the hilly terrain, it was not possible for rescue officials to carry out a relief operation, he added.

A little before noon, nearly four hours after the children got stuck, television footage showed a Pakistan Army helicopter arriving at the site. Meanwhile, local school teacher Zafar Iqbal confirmed the same development to Geo News.

One of the passengers stuck in the cable car, Mr Gulfaraz, spoke to Geo News on his cellphone, saying a student aboard has been unconscious for the past three hours due to a “heart issue”.

The 20-year-old said the students were between the ages of 10 and 15 years.

Mr Gulfaraz urged the state authorities to take action, keeping “human empathy and human life” in mind.

He added: “People in our area are standing here and crying”.

When asked if the students had any food items with them, Mr Gulfaraz replied they did not even have drinking water.

He said: “Where will the food items come from?”

He stressed that they were in need of drinking water, and his cellphone battery was low while the others had a “simple mobile phone”.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar has directed the authorities to immediately rescue the trapped people, Radio Pakistan reported.

He further instructed that the “safety arrangements for all such chairlifts in the hilly areas” be ensured and ordered the immediate suspension of the operation of any chairlift in a dilapidated condition that does not meet safety standards, the report added.

Mr Iqbal said at least 150 students take the hazardous journey to school by cable car every day due to the lack of road facilities.

Separately, Battagram district police officer Sonia Shamroz highlighted the need for maintaining cable cars and chairlifts in the area because of frequent use.

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar said he was tracking progress of the rescue.

“Thanks to the efforts of our army personnel, students stuck in the chairlift have started returning to the ground safely,” he said in a post on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter. (DAWN/ASIA NEWS NETWORK)

Source: Thestraitstimes