By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
NAPLES, ITALY (Worthy News) – An area near Italy’s southern city of Naples plunged into mourning early Friday after authorities confirmed that at least four people died and one was seriously injured when a cable car crashed to the ground.
Officials announced that a cable broke on the link taking tourists from the town of Castellammare di Stabia, on the Gulf of Naples, to Monte Faito, about three kilometers (1.8 miles) away.
“Four lifeless bodies were found, while a fifth injured person was rescued and taken to hospital,” the fire department said on social media, adding that this was a final toll.
It was expected to raise an ongoing debate about Italy’s sometimes crumbling infrastructure.
Vincenzo De Luca, the head of the Campania region around Naples, told Italian media that rescue operations were hampered by fog and high winds. More than 50 firefighters took part in rescue efforts.
One cabin carrying 16 passengers was close to Castellammare, and the passengers were put down on firm ground. A second cabin was above a precipice on Mount Faito, and fog delayed the rescue effort.
The cable car had just reopened for the summer season, and prosecutors said they had launched an investigation into the accident. “The cable car reopened 10 days ago with all the required safety conditions,” said Umberto de Gregorio, the head of the cable car company.
“What happened today is an unimaginable, unforeseeable tragedy.”
The cable car has been operating since 1952, and a similar accident in 1960 also left four dead, records showed.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was on a trip to Washington at the time of the incident, expressed her “sincere condolences” to the families of the victims
It comes some four years after 14 people died in 2021 when a cable car linking Lake Maggiore with a nearby mountain plunged to the ground in northern Italy.
In 1998, a US fighter jet flying at a low level on a training flight cut a steel cable, killing 20 people in a cable car in the Dolomites.
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