MADRID (Reuters) – A ski lift collapsed at a station in the Spanish region of Aragon on Saturday, injuring dozens of people, nine seriously and eight seriously, the regional government said.
About 80 people remain trapped hanging on the chairlift of the Astún ski resort, in the province of Huesca, according to the state channel TVE.
“It’s as if a cable had come loose, the chairs had bounced and people had been thrown,” a witness told TVE.
The cause of the cable failure remains unknown.
The ski resort management declined to comment and could not immediately say whether foreigners were among the injured.
Several helicopters were working in the area to rescue the skiers who were still trapped on the chairlift and transport the injured to nearby hospitals.
The Astún ski resort, popular mainly with Spanish skiers, is located near the Spanish border with France, in the Pyrenees mountain range.