After over 15 hours, there was finally some joy and relief as eight people – including six children – were successfully rescued from a dangling cable car hanging above a ravine in Battagram, Pakistan.
What Happened
According to reports, six children were travelling to school with two adults on a cable car in a mountainous northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province when one of its ropes snapped on Tuesday morning, 22 August, around 7 am local time.
Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority said army helicopters were dispatched for the rescue operation. The first rescue was confirmed in the evening, one child was evacuated, and the second child was rescued via zipline. But after sunset, the aerial operation had to be suspended due to poor weather conditions, and ground operation, also with the help of locals, was launched to rescue the stranded people.
There were reports of locals using a zipline to send food and water to the cable car and simultaneously trying to rescue the remaining individuals.
Around 23:00 local time, officials confirmed that all eight people had been successfully rescued - in what the army called an operation of "unprecedented difficulty".
The rescue operation and the loud cheers were all captured in highly shared videos across social media platforms.
Highly Complex And Challenging Rescue Operation – Pakistan Army
Pakistan's army has said that a highly complex and challenging rescue operation in the Battagram area has been successfully completed.
A statement released by the army says the Special Services Group (SSG) team safely rescued the people who got trapped in a cable car 600ft (183m) above the ground.
The army says that pilots from the Army and air force demonstrated "exceptional skill and professionalism" during the rescue. Local cable experts also helped.
The statement describes the rescue as "unique" and "an operation of unprecedented difficulty".
Great Teamwork, Says Pakistan's Caretaker PM
The acting Pakistani Prime Minister, Anwaar ul Haq Kakar, was ‘relieved’ once the operation had successfully ended and everyone was safe.
He adds on X, formerly known as Twitter: "Great teamwork by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as the local people."
No Roads, Just Cable Cars!
These cable cars are highly used in this mountainous region because of the basic facilities or no road infrastructures. Children use cable cars daily to travel to school, which could otherwise be a two-to-three-hour walk.
After the Tuesday incident, President of Pakistan Arif Alvi called on his administration to "conduct a comprehensive survey" of all cable cars in the country on his social media handle.
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