“We were very scared”: in Spain, thirty injured in a chairlift accident.

A chairlift accident in a ski resort in the north-east of Spain, located in the Pyrenees near the French border, left thirty injured this Saturday, January 18, 2025, including four serious, announced the local authorities, relayed by L’Agence France-Presse (AFP).

This accident occurred in the morning in the Pyrenean resort of Astún in Aragon (north-east), after the violent fall of chairlifts. Miguel Ángel Clavero, director of Aragon’s emergency services, explained on public television TVE 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. 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 Astún station is located, Jorge Azcón, indicated 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.

Chairlift fallen from a height of 15 meters

According to the daily The Country no deaths have been reported at the moment, but rescue operations are underway. The Guardia Civil, relayed by the newspaper, claims that the chairlift fell “at a height of 15 meters”.

“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,” said María Moreno, one of the victims, on public television. “We were very scared,” she added.

A young man, a witness to the incident, also told the same channel 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 fifteen ambulances were mobilized while a field hospital was set up in the station.

In a message published on X, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said he “shocked by the information about the accident in Astún station” and indicated that he had “offered all the support” from central government to local authorities.