Thirty skiers were injured on Saturday, four of them seriously, after their chairlifts violently fell onto the slope in a Spanish ski resort, close to the French border, local authorities said. This accident, which occurred in the morning in the Pyrenean resort of Astún in Aragon (north-east), left a total of 30 victims, according to a latest report from the emergency services communicated on the social network had reported “30 to 35 injured”.
“Obviously, there was a problem with the pulley of one of the chairlifts, which led to a loss of tension in the cable and the fall of some chairlifts”explained Miguel Ángel Clavero, director of emergency services for the Aragon region, where the Astún station is located.
“People stole”
Quoted by the Spanish daily The Countrya witness says: “The slopes were full, because it's a sunny day and there's good snow. One of the wheels that turn the chairlifts broke, people felt ups and downs, a cambering effect, users even turned around and found themselves face down on the ground.
On public television TVE, one of the victims, Maria Moreno, explained: “We suddenly heard a noise and fell to the ground in the chairlift. We bounced five times, up, down and our backs hurt and took hits but there were people who fell off the chairlifts. “We were very scared”she added, saying she saw people injured on the track below after being “directly affected by the chairlift” having fallen.
A young man, who witnessed the incident, told public television TVE that he had seen a cable from the chairlift mechanism jump. “Suddenly the chairlifts started bouncing and people were flying,” he said.
-Five helicopters and around ten ambulances were mobilized to evacuate the injured to nearby hospitals, according to media reports. According to the Spanish daily The Countryfirefighters, psychologists and 24 resuscitation ambulances were also sent to the scene. In addition, there are more advanced survival vehicles and 14 more conventional ambulances.
The ski resort was evacuated and closed to the public.
Update : at 2:45 p.m., with new elements; at 3:10 p.m. with a new report of around thirty injured; at 5:50 p.m. with a new assessment and additional testimonies.
