QUITO, July 8 — Dozens of people were rescued in the early hours of Friday after being trapped for nearly 10 hours on one of the world’s highest tourist cable cars in Ecuador’s capital Quito.
Seventy-five people were brought to the ground, all “safe and sound,” after an operation involving firefighters and the police, the municipality of Quito said in a statement.
The visitors were trapped for “nearly 10 hours” after the system was paralysed due to an electrical problem.
The statement said 48 people stuck at the system’s uppermost terminal at an altitude of some 4,000 metres were brought to safety.
Seventeen were then rescued from gondolas stuck on the line while another 10 came to the ground after the system restarted.
The cable car travels a distance of 2.5 kilometres between two terminals, the lowest at an altitude of 3,100 metres above sea level.
Video footage on the municipality’s Twitter account shows people being abseiled to safety from a gondola. Others, including children, are seen emerging, wrapped in emergency blankets, after their cabins made it back safely to the ground. — AFP
