Fourteen people have died after a cable car crashed to the ground.
The cable car was carrying passengers to the top of the Stresa-Mottarone line in the Piedmont region of the western Alps when it dropped just 1,000ft away from the station shortly after 12pm.
Italy's Alpine rescue service said the cable line had been renovated in 2016 and had only reopened last month, after coronavirus lockdowns forced the closures of ski lifts across the country.
Stresa mayor Marcella Severino said engineers believe the accident near the 4,900ft summit was caused by one of the cables breaking, which sent the car careening until it hit a pylon and then fell to the ground. At that point, the car overturned 'two or three times before hitting some trees'.
It is thought that 13 passengers were killed instantly, while two young children aged five and nine were airlifted to Turin's Regina Margherita children's hospital. Hospital spokesman Pier Paolo Berra said one of the children died after several attempts to restart his heart failed and 'there was nothing more we could do'. The other child remains in serious condition with broken bones, authorities added.
Images from the site showed the crumpled car in a clearing of a thick patch of pine trees near the summit of the Mottarone peak overlooking Lake Maggiore, a popular tourist spot. Sunday was a sunny day in the area, and many families were taking advantage of the weather to enjoy a day out after lockdown.
Italian premier Mario Draghi voiced his condolences to the families of the victims, 'with a special thought' for the injured children, while transport minister Enrico Giovannini described the incident as a 'terrible tragedy'.
Walter Milan, spokesman for the Alpine rescue service, said the plunge happened about 330ft before the final pylon, in a spot where the cables were particularly high off the ground.
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