Cables carrying the Panoramic Mont Blanc cars reportedly tangled around 4 p.m. (1400 GMT).
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Cable cars that were stuck overnight thousands of metres up among the glaciers of Mont Blanc with some 30 tourists on board were restarted on September 9, 2016, the operators said.
France 3 TV said the cables had become tangled in high winds.
“As a result of the cables being crossed in the three areas along the 5km of the Panoramic Mont-Blanc gondola linking the Aiguille du Midi (F) to the Pointe Helbronner (I), 110 persons were blocked in the cabins”.
More than 100 tourists were trapped in the Mont Blanc region of France on Thursday evening when the cable auto service they were using developed a snag, reported AFP.
Emergency workers had scrambled at first light to rescue the stranded people, who included a child, after the cable jammed at 5.30pm on Thursday (Friday morning NZT).
In a statement supplied to BuzzFeed News, cable vehicle operator Compagnie du Mont-Blanc said that the incident happened as a result of the haulage cable and the suspension cable becoming crossed, which can occur as part of a sudden stop or in strong winds. He said the helicopters rescued 65 people before the efforts were suspended for the night because of rough flight conditions.
Police said all the remaining passengers seemed in good health when they were rescued on Friday morning. The first two sections of cable cars were expected to reopen at approximately 10 a.m. local time this morning, but the third section, where the tourists were stranded, is still being cleared for use and will likely not be open again for 24 hours.
Each cable auto holds just four passengers.
Thirty-three people forced to spend the night suspended in midair in cable cars in the French Alps have been rescued, according to French media.
“The helicopter rescue failed because the fog moved in, so we had to just wait and then they decided they could belay us safely to the ground, and we walked up the glacier to the hut”, she said upon arrival in Courmayeur.
The rescue operation involved four helicopters including from Switzerland, France and Italy.
From there, rescuers brought the passengers by foot to the nearest mountain station.
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The cables are believed to have got tangled in high winds, the BBC said.
