Dozens of tourists stuck in cable cars over French Alps rescued

More than 30 tourists who spent a dramatic night stranded in cable cars above the French Alps were brought to the ground Friday after an 18-hour ordeal, operators said.

An Italian police officer escorts a boy who was trapped overnight in cable cars which got stuck above the Alps. Source: AP

They were the last of 110 sightseers trapped when the cable cars ground to a halt Thursday afternoon in the shadow of Mont Blanc, western Europe's loftiest peak.

After a night in the frozen dark, dangling at an altitude of 3,800 metres (12,500 feet), the string of cars lurched into movement at around 8 am (0600 GMT).

Seventy-seven people were evacuated, including 48 who were airlifted out by helicopter and around 30 travelling in cars closest to the ground who were able to climb down with the help of rescuers.

But with darkness falling and the weather deteriorating, the rescue operation was suspended, leaving 33 tourists, one of them a 10-year-old child, forced to spend the night dangling in mid-air.

A series of cable cars carrying tourists stopped working at high altitude over the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps. Source: AP

"We were in contact with them throughout the night, the people were cold" but there did not appear to be any health emergencies, the local police chief, Stephane Bozon, told AFP as the rescue operation resumed early Friday.

The prefect of the Haute-Savoie region, Georges François Leclerc, said late Thursday that rescuers were forced to stop their operation at 8:45pm as they could not "guarantee the safety of the pilots, rescuers and the people stuck in the cars".

During the night, a team of five rescuers, three French and two Italian police officers also attempted to reach the trapped tourists.

One of the officers managed to get into a car which contained a 10-year-old child.

Those still stuck had access to emergency blankets, energy bars and bottles of water in the cars.

The incident was caused by cables that got crossed for "unknown reasons", but a gust of wind is thought to have played a part, Dechavanne said on Thursday.

The employees of the company were not able to repair the cars, forcing an evacuation operation to begin around 5:00pm.

The cable cars connect Aiguille du Midi on the French side of the mountains with Pointe Helbronner on the Italian border, where the rescued passengers were taken.

The cable cars, which carry four passengers each, offer panoramic views of Mont Blanc, which straddles the French-Italian border.

The incident comes five years after around 40 people were stuck for nearly seven hours on the Grande-Motte cable car in the southeastern French Alps after it broke down.

They were evacuated through trap doors in the floor of the cars, using ropes to reach the ground 40 metres below