Twelve people were rescued late Thursday night because their cable cars were hanging low enough that rescue workers could get to them safely, said Iaian Cleaver, an employee of Mont-Blanc Company, which owns the cable vehicle service.
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Rescued passengers arrive at a cable auto station in Courmayeur, Italy.
The mountain rescue service in the French city of Chamonix said cables that had become entangled Thursday were repaired, and the cable cars were able to resume operation Friday morning.
Four helicopters rescued 65 people from the four-person cable cars before night fell over Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps, and dropped emergency blankets and bottles of water for those left stuck.
“Antoine Burnet, from cable vehicle operator Compagnie Du Mont Blanc, praised the professionalism of the rescuers and the “exemplary conduct” and calmness” of those trapped.
During the night, a team of five rescuers, three French and two Italian police officers also attempted to reach the trapped tourists. The last 33 persons who spent the night in high altitude in the cabines have been safely evacuated.
“This worked in two places, but unfortunately not in the third, and taking into account the fact that time was passing and in line with procedures, we made a decision to alert our emergency services to carry out a helicopter rescue”, he said.
An Italian police officer escorts a boy who was trapped overnight in cable cars above the Alps.
Dozens of tourists had to spend the night in cable cars suspended over the mountain when the machines stopped working.
One of the officers managed to get into a vehicle which contained a 10-year-old child.
Three of the cables carrying the cars tangled, which led them to stop suddenly, the company said.
The Panoramic Cable vehicle is operated in the summer season, while another series of cable cars take tourists to the peak of the Aiguille de Midi year-round.
Each cabin carries four passengers, and the 5km ride is normally meant to take 30 to 35 minutes.
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“For two and a half hours we didn’t know what had happened and the cable vehicle was moving a lot when they were trying to untangle the cables”.
