(Istanbul) The anguish ended on Saturday for the last passengers of a cable car in southern Turkey, evacuated after spending twenty-three hours above the void following the fall of a pylon, announced the rescuers.
The accident, which occurred shortly before 5:30 p.m. (10:30 a.m. Eastern time) Friday on the heights of the large seaside resort of Antalya, left one dead and 10 injured, according to Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin Koca .
One of the cabins of the Sarisu-Tünektepe cable car, hit by the pylon, broke, causing its passengers to fall into a rocky area.
174 other passengers, including children, were “successfully” evacuated after a “very perilous operation”, announced Saturday Okay Memis, the head of the Turkish public disaster management agency (Afad).
Mr. Memis specified that “this accident occurred following the breakage of a mechanism at the top of a cable car pylon”, possibly a screw.
PHOTO HIA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ten helicopters and more than 600 rescuers were dispatched to the scene, according to the authorities.
Ayse Hatice Polat, a fifty-year-old who remained trapped in a cabin for more than 21 hours, kissed the ground when she got off the helicopter, several local media reported.
Ten helicopters and more than 600 rescuers were dispatched to the scene, according to the authorities.
Detention orders have been issued against thirteen people, including officials of the company operating the cable car, as part of an investigation aimed at determining the causes of the accident, announced Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunç .
“The incident occurred due to the insufficiency and corrosion of the fixings at the connection points of the cable car’s supporting pylons,” Mr. Tunç said on the social network also points to the poor condition of the pulley systems.