Skiers rescued from Swiss cable car

9th April 2012, by Chris Gill

The Diavolezza lift, St Mortiz

Up to 75 passengers have been rescued from a cable car near St Moritz, Switzerland, that broke down half way up the mountain.

The Diavolezza cable car was full of skiers heading up to the area’s glacier slopes on Monday morning (9 April), in the region’s third area of slopes about 20km outside of the resort. It is not immediately known what caused the lift defect but because of its position, the helicopter rescue took over two hours – lifting two of three skiers to safety at a time. Rescue workers from the Swiss alpine club and Swiss air rescue (Rega) took part. There were no reported injuries to the cable car passengers.

The 30-year old Diavolezza gondola rises to almost 3,000 meters and was recently renovated at a cost of 4.5 million Swiss Francs.

• st moritz
• cable car

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