Italian cable car plunges to the ground, killing at least 9
Rome: A cable car taking visitors to a mountaintop view of some of northern Italy's most picturesque lakes plunged to the ground Sunday, killing at least nine people and sending two children to the hospital, authorities said.
A photo of the wreckage taken by Italy's fire department showed the crushed and crumpled remains of the cable car in a clearing of a thick patch of pine trees near the summit of the Mottarone peak overlooking Lake Maggiore.
At that location, about 100 meters (yards) before the final pilon, the cables of the lift were particularly high off the ground, said Walter Milan, spokesman for the Alpine rescue service. The cause hasn't been determined.
Milan noted that the cable line had been renovated in 2016 and had only recently reopened after coronavirus lockdowns forced the closures of ski lifts across Italy.
Sunday was a beautiful, sunny day in the area, and Milan hypothesized that many families were taking advantage of the gorgeous weather to enjoy a day in nature after months of lockdown. Italy only reopened a few weeks ago, allowing travel between regions after a winter of COVID-19 restrictions.
Mottarone reaches a height of 1,491 meters (4,900 feet) and overlooks several picturesque lakes and the surrounding Alps of Italy's Piedmont region. Milan said a total of 11 people were in the cable car at the time. The two children were in serious condition and were taken to a Turin hospital, Milan said.
The trip up the mountain from the base at the lake features a cable car to get up halfway and then a chairlift to reach a small amusement park, Alpyland, further up that has a children's rollercoaster offering 360-degree views of the scenery.
The site offers mountain bike paths and hiking trails, as is common for many Italian mountain areas that are popular with tourists and locals in spring and summer.
The Stresa-Mottarone cable car line advertises a panoramic, 20-minute trip up the mountain, offering a view of seven lakes at the peak.
It appeared to be Italy's worst cable car disaster since 1998 when a low-flying U.S. military jet cut through the cable of a ski lift in Cavalese, in the Dolomites, killing 20 people.
Italy's transport minister, Enrico Giovannini, was following the rescue effort, which involved the deployment of three helicopters to the mountainside.
It's the latest incident to raise questions about the quality of Italy's transport infrastructure. In 2018, the Morandi bridge in Genoa collapsed after years of neglect, killing 43 people.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
