14 dead after Italian cable car falls

More than a dozen people are dead after a cable car line snapped in northern Italy on Sunday, causing a car to fall to the ground.

The Associated Press reported that the death toll from the accident stands at 14, with one survivor, a young child, hospitalized with “serious” injuries.

Video of the scene showed first responders attending to the mangled wreckage on the forested slope of a mountain.

More than a dozen people died and at least three were seriously injured in Italy when a cable car linking Lake Maggiore with a nearby mountain in the Alps plunged to the ground https://t.co/7piJrnUQVg pic.twitter.com/Hyk6orXcdf

— Reuters (@Reuters) May 23, 2021

The accident occurred as tourism across Italy is just beginning to resume following months of COVID-19 related lockdowns.

At least six of those killed were Israeli citizens who lived in Italy, Israel’s foreign ministry told the news service.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi offered his condolences to the victims and families of those involved in a statement obtained by the AP, “with a particular thought about the seriously injured children and their families.”

A commission appointed by Italy’s government will investigate the accident, according to an announcement Sunday.