More than thirty people were injured, including four seriously, in a chairlift accident on Saturday January 18 in a ski resort in the Pyrenees in the north-east of Spain, near the French border, announced local authorities.
“We are talking about 30 to 35 injured, serious, very serious or less serious”declared on public television TVE Miguel Angel Clavero, director of emergency services in the Aragon region, where the Astun station is located. “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”he explained.
Ten victims had to be treated in hospitals, four of whom were in serious condition. The other twenty were treated at the station by emergency services.
Arriving on site, the president of the Aragon region where the Astun station is located, Jorge Azcon, reported that the most seriously injured victim, a woman, had to be transferred to a nearby hospital by helicopter. All the skiers who were left hanging in their chairlift were rescued, he added.
-A field hospital installed
“We suddenly heard a noise and fell to the ground in the chairlift. We bounced five times, up and down, and our backs hurt and took a beating, but there were people who fell off the chairlifts.”said Maria Moreno, one of the victims, on public television. “We were very scared”she added. A young person who witnessed the incident, also on TVE, said he saw a cable from the chairlift mechanism jump. “Suddenly the chairlifts started bouncing and people were flying”he described.
Five helicopters and around fifteen ambulances were mobilized while a field hospital was set up in the station.
In a message published on X, the Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, said “shocked by the information about the accident in Astun station” and indicated that he had “offered all the support” from central government to local authorities.
