‘Tragedy’: Four dead after cable car crash in Italy

At least four people have died after a cable snapped sending a cable car plummeting to the ground in Italy.

At least four people have died after a cable car crashed to the ground in Italy.

The accident occurred at Monte Faito in the town of town of Castellammare di Stabia near the city of Naples.

Italian media has reported a cable supporting the car failed. It’s been reported the cable car was close to a precipice when it dropped. Mt Faito reaches 1100 metres above sea level.

All of the victims are said to be tourists.

According to Vincenzo De Luca, the president of the Campania region in southern Italy, two couples and one worker were inside the cable car,

One person was “extremely seriously injured” officials said.

Rescuers reach for the smashed gondola of the Mt. Faito cable car near Naples in southern Italy. Picture: AP

“The cabin at the top has crashed,” Umberto De Gregorio, chairman of the EAV public transport company which runs the cable car service was reported as saying by website Euronews.

He described the incident as “a tragedy”.

The cable car gives passengers view of Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples.

Fog, wind and rain were hampering rescue efforts.

Another cable reportedly came to a halt further done the hill and around 16 people were rescued for that vehicle.

They were evacuated one by one via a harnesses.

Rescuers on the site where a cable car carrying tourists south of Naples has crashed after the cable snapped. Picture: Alessandro Garofalo/LaPresse/AP

“The emergency brake downstream worked but clearly not the one on the cabin that was about to reach the top of the hill,” the mayor of Castellammare di Stabia told Italian media.

Italy’s President of the Senate Ignazio La Russa has expressed his condolences on social media.

“I learn with deep sorrow of the tragedy that occurred on the Monte Faito cable car. I express my deepest condolences to the families of the victims and I address a thought of gratitude to all the rescuers involved,” he wrote, according to CNN.

The local prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the incident.

It comes four years after a cable car overlooking Lake Maggiore in northern Italy crashed to the ground in 2021, killing 14 people.