Milan – A cable car carrying tourists south of Naples crashed to the ground Thursday after a cable snapped, killing at least four people and critically injuring one, officials said.
The snapped cable brought both the upward and downward-going cable cars to a halt as they traversed Monte Faito in the town of Castellammare di Stabia. The upward cable car eventually crashed, causing the fatalities and injury, while eight tourists and an operator were evacuated from the downward cable car, Naples Prefect Michele de Bari said.
Three tourists were among four people who died, including a British and an Israeli woman, according to Marco De Rosa, the spokesperson for the mayor of the local town of Vico Equense. Only two of the three foreign victims had been identified by the morning after the accident.
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Italian prosecutors have opened an investigation into multiple manslaughter and culpable disaster.
“The traction cable broke. The emergency brake downstream worked, but evidently not the one on the cabin that was entering the station,” said Castellammare Mayor Luigi Vicinanza.
Italy’s alpine rescue, along with firefighters, police and civil protection services responded to the accident.
The accident occurred just a week after the cable car, popular for its views of Mount Vesuvius and the Bay of Naples, reopened for the season.
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Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed her condolences for the victims and their families and said she was in touch with rescuers. She was in Washington, where she met with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Fourteen people were killed in a similar accident in 2021 when a cable broke in northern Italy’s picturesque lake region, sending a cable car plummeting to the ground and then tumbling down a slope.
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