India cable car collision: Last of almost 50 people trapped mid-air rescued

Indian military rescuers with helicopters lifted to safety on Tuesday (April 12) the last of almost 50 passengers who had been trapped mid-air since a fatal cable-car collision two days earlier, police said.

The collision on the pilgrim cableway directly killed one person, and another fell to his death on Monday when trying to climb on to a rescue helicopter, a police officer in Jharkhand state’s Deoghar district told Reuters.

Most of the almost 50 survivors in the dangling cars were rescued on Monday. But three were not lifted to safety until Tuesday, said Mr Subhash Chandra Jat, the police chief of Deoghar, where the incident occurred in remote hilly territory.

The cars collided when one of them became partly dislodged from its cable, Mr Jat said. Neither car fell to the ground, but both became immobilised.

The cableway takes pilgrims to the top of a hill called Trikut, which Hindus consider holy.