The toll from the accident which occurred in the ski resort of Astún, in the Spanish Pyrenees, has been revised downwards. Two 18-year-old girls are seriously injured.
A chairlift accident occurred on the morning of this Saturday in the Pyrenean resort of Astún in Aragon (north-east) and caused a total of 30 victims, according to a latest report from the emergency services communicated on the social network .
Initially, rescuers reported “30 to 35 injured” and 4 people seriously injured. Ultimately, there were two people seriously injured. These are two 18-year-old girls transferred to the Zaragoza hospital, according to the Diario de Navarra which cited sources close to the Navarre government.
One of these two young girls was under observation, while the other was in another hospital in the city in the trauma department, with a guarded vital prognosis, awaiting development.
Miguel Ángel Clavero, director of Aragon's emergency services, explained on public television that the accident was due to “a problem with the pulley of one of the chairlifts”.
“This resulted in a loss of cable tension and some chairlifts falling while others remained suspended,” he added.
We collaborate in the relief efforts after an accident in the Astún ski resort (Huesca) where a 15-meter-high chairlift line has come down. Civil guards from the Mountain Rescue and Intervention Group, Air Service and Citizen Security participate… pic.twitter.com/weioCLGGOc
-— Guardia Civil (@guardiacivil) https://twitter.com/guardiacivil/status/1880604310700265583?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
A young man, who witnessed the incident, told TVE that he saw a cable from the chairlift mechanism jump. “Suddenly the chairlifts started bouncing and people were flying,” he described.
“We suddenly heard a noise and we fell to the ground, in the chairlift. We bounced five times, up, down and our backs hurt and got hit but there were people who fell from the chairlifts “, said María Moreno, one of the victims, on public television.
Following this event, this resort, where many Navarrese go to ski, was closed for the day.
