Prosecutors in Italy have opened an investigation into possible manslaughter after a cable car crash on Thursday that killed four people.
Prosecutors in Torre Annunziata opened the case following the incident at Monte Faito, a peak about 45km southeast of Naples in southern Italy.
Italian news agency Ansa reported that two British tourists and an Israeli national were among the four people who died in the town of Castellammare di Stabia, citing Naples mayor Gaetano Manfredi.
The Italian driver of the cable car was also reported to have died.
‘I found out the rugby player I’m seeing is four-timing me, and I am more attracted to him than ever’
Garda whistleblower to sue force over arrest by armed officers during football match
Mystery surrounds Joanna Donnelly’s sudden departure from RTÉ weather forecasting role
The ‘Papabiles’: Six men who could become the next pope following the papal conclave
Another man, reported in the Italian press to be Israeli, was hospitalised in Ponticelli with severe injuries. The hospital said the man, who was intubated and had fractures to his lower limbs, remained “stable in the seriousness” of his injuries and would undergo further tests on Friday morning.
The cable car service operated two cabins. The one that crashed had been travelling up the mountain, while 16 people were helped out of the cabin that had been making its way down and stopped in mid-air close to the foot of the peak.
They were evacuated one by one, using harnesses, footage on RAI public television and other media showed.
Italian media reported that one of the cables supporting the cabin had snapped. The cable car service, which had opened for the spring and summer season 10 days previously, underwent a maintenance check a week ago, according to reports on Friday.
“The cabin at the top has crashed,” Umberto De Gregorio, the chair of EAV, the public transport company that runs the cable car service, wrote on Facebook, calling it “a tragedy”.
Vincenzo De Luca, head of the Campania region around Naples, told RAI that rescue operations were hampered by fog and strong winds, which on Thursday had reached 100km/h.
Residents heard a loud bang before the cable car fell, according to news reports.
“There was a truly severe weather situation, therefore I can imagine what could have happened at 1,500m above sea level,” Mr De Luca said. “But, I repeat, technical checks must be done with the utmost rigour.”
The last deadly cable car crash in Italy was in 2021 when 14 people were killed when a cable car linking the resort town of Stresa and the Mottarone mountain in the Piedmont region plummeted into the woods near Lake Maggiore.
The Faito cable car service was launched in 1952. In 1960 four people, including a nine-year-old child, died after a pylon broke, Napoli Today reported. – Guardian/PA
