After a nearly 24-hour operation, 184 people stranded in the air since Friday afternoon were rescued.
One person was killed and 17 others injured after a cable car cabin collided with a broken pole in the southern Turkish province of Antalya, according to the country’s health and justice ministers.
The injured “have been transferred to hospitals and their treatment is continuing,” Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said on the social media platform X on Saturday.
People who were rescued and said they did not need hospital transport had their health checks done in ambulances, he added.
The accident occurred late Friday afternoon. A cable car in the Sarisu-Tunektepe system crashed into a rocky area, Koca said.
After around 24 hours of rescue efforts, 184 people have been stranded in the air since the accident had been rescued, the state-run Turkish agency Anadolu said.
In a statement to X, the Interior Ministry said that seven helicopters and more than 500 rescue workers were involved in the rescue efforts.
Istanbul resident Hatice Polat and her family were rescued seven hours after the ordeal.
Speaking to Anadolu, she said the power went out and the capsule turned over four or five times.
“The night was terrible, we were very scared. There were children with us who fainted,” she said. “It was torture being up there for seven hours. It fluctuates every second, you are constantly afraid. … It was very traumatic, I don’t know how we’re going to overcome this trauma.”
Thirteen suspects are arrested
Anadolu identified the deceased as a 54-year-old Turkish man. The injured included two children, Turkish citizens and a Kyrgyz citizen.
Images in Turkish media showed the damaged cable car teetering on loose cables on the side of the rocky mountain as medics tended to the wounded.
Videos released by the Interior and Health Ministries showed rescue workers tied to safety ropes climbing into cabins.
The cable car takes tourists from Konyaalti Beach to a restaurant and viewing platform at the top of the 618-meter-high Tunektepe Peak. It is operated by Antalya Metropolitan Municipality.
The cable car route was completed in 2017 and will undergo a major inspection at the beginning of the year and routine inspections throughout the year.
Yilmaz Tunc, Turkey’s justice minister, said an investigation had been opened into the accident and arrest warrants had been issued for 13 people.
Tunc said up
He said the suspects who should be arrested included some employees of the company that operates the cable car, as well as employees of the company responsible for maintaining and repairing the line.