© Photo: Maria Novoselova/Vestnik Kavkaza
The story of 174 funicular passengers that stuck at high altitude in Antalya ended happily. Despite difficult weather conditions and terrain, they all were descended to the ground, including with the help of helicopters and rock climbers.
The head of the Turkish Emergency Situation Agency, Okay Memish said that the rescue operation on the broken funicular in Antalya is finished. All 174 tourists hanging in the air were lowered to the ground.
"All 174 people were evacuated. The rescue operation was completed successfully. 11 citizens were sent to hospitals for monitoring,”
– Okay Memish said.
The head of the rescue agency noted that over 2,200 specialists worked to descend the tourists to the ground.
On Friday, a cable car pole came off, which is why, under the threat of the cabins falling, the operation of the cable car was stopped. The detached structure hit the nearest cabin pod with 11 passengers, that burst open. One of them died. Another 24 cabins remained in the air; helicopters and climbers were engaged in the resque operation.
Authorities are currently investigating the cause of the accident. 13 citizens responsible for the work of the funicular have already been taken into custody; it has been established that a technical check before the tourist season did not show any malfunctions.
