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Ten people have been hurt, two of them seriously, after a ski lift collapsed at a resort in north-east Spain, hurling dozens of passengers into the snow below.
Although initial reports said 35 people had been injured on Saturday at the Pyrenean resort of Astún, in the Aragón region, the figures were later revised down.
By 4pm local time, the regional emergency services said 30 people had been involved in the accident, of whom 10 were taken to hospital. They said two people had been badly injured, two others had required urgent attention, and six more were being treated. Twenty others were given the all-clear at the accident site.
Miguel Ángel Clavero, the head of Aragón’s emergency services, said the accident appeared to have been caused by “a failure in the ski lift return system, which produced a breakdown in tension”.
Clavero said rescuers were still on the scene, trying to get stranded people down. “In the first instance, as people are still on the lift, Guardia Civil officers, firefighters and ski station workers are trying to get them down and to safety,” he told Aragón TV.
Clavero added that the ski station was closed and asked everyone “to leave the centre so as to leave the car park free”.
Some of those involved in the accident told reporters how they had crashed into the ground beneath them.
“Suddenly we heard a sound and we fell straight to the ground, inside the chair,” María Moreno told the public broadcaster TVE. “We bounced up and down about five times and our backs were quite sore or we were hurt, but there were people who fell out of the chairs.”
Moreno added that she thought some people must have been seriously injured because “the chair hit them directly” when it collapsed.
“It’s like a cable came loose and suddenly all the chairs started to bounce and people went flying,” a young man told TVE.
Five helicopters, 14 ambulances and a mobile medical centre were scrambled to the resort as soon as news of the accident was received.
Jorge Azcón, the regional president of Aragón, said he was travelling to the site, while Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, offered his thoughts and assistance.
“Shocked by the news of the accident at the Astún resort,” he wrote on X. “I’ve spoken to Jorge Azcón to offer the government’s full support. “We send all our love to the injured and to their families.”
