More than 40 stranded after deadly cable car accident in Turkey

More than 40 people remained stranded in cable cars above a mountain in southern Turkey on Saturday, 19 hours after a basket hit a pole and opened, killing one person and injuring seven.

The accident happened around 5:30 p.m. on Friday at the Tunektepe cable car, just outside the Mediterranean city of Antalya, during the busy Eid al-Fitr holiday. Rescue operations for stranded people continued throughout the night.

“128 citizens in 16 groups were rescued in difficult conditions,” Okay Memis, director of Turkey’s search and rescue agency AFAD, told media on Saturday morning. “Rescue of 43 more people in the remaining eight modules is underway.”

He added that rescuers hope to complete rescue operations before nightfall.

The casualties occurred when a cherry picker hit a pole and opened, sending its passengers plummeting to the mountainside below, officials said.

The state-run Anadolu Agency identified the deceased as a 54-year-old Turkish man. The injured were six Turkish citizens and one Kyrgyz national, including two children. They were rescued by coast guard helicopters.

Footage broadcast to Turkish media showed the battered car swinging from dislodged cables on the rocky mountainside as medics treated the injured.

A total of 543 first responders and seven helicopters are involved in the rescue operations, including teams from AFAD, coast guard, firefighting teams and mountaineering teams from different regions of Turkey, officials said .

Friday was the last day of a three-day public holiday in Turkey marking the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which sees families flocking to beach resorts.

The cable car transports tourists from Konyaalti Beach to a restaurant and viewing platform at the top of Tunektepe Peak, rising to 2,010 feet. It is managed by Antalya Metropolitan Municipality. The cable car line was completed in 2017 and is undergoing a major inspection earlier this year, as well as routine inspections throughout the year.

The Antalya General Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation. An expert commission made up of mechanical and electrical engineers as well as health and safety experts was tasked with determining the cause of the incident.