A chairlift broke at a Spanish ski resort near the French border on Saturday, January 18, injuring around 35 people, some of them seriously, regional officials and the media said.
"We are talking about around 30 to 35 people injured, including serious, very serious and less serious injuries," Miguel Ángel Clavero, the director of emergencies for the Aragon region, where the incident occurred, told public television TVE. "Apparently, there was a failure in the return pulley of one of the chairlifts and this caused the cable to lose tension, causing some chairs to fall and others to remain hanging," Clavero said. The cause of the incident is unknown.
The accident at the resort in the Pyrenees mountains also saw skiers on several other seats falling. "Suddenly we heard a sound and we fell straight to the ground, inside the chair. 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," María Moreno told public television TVE. "The truth is that we were very scared," said Moreno, adding that must be people with serious injuries because "the chair hit them directly" when it collapsed.
Local media said 39 people were injured, nine of them very seriously. "It's like a cable came loose and suddenly all the chairs started to bounce and people went flying," a young man told TVE.
Regional leader Jorge Azcon said on X he was heading to the site of the accident and everything was being done to attend to those affected.
Five helicopters and a dozen ambulances were dispatched to the resort to ferry the injured to nearby hospitals, local media said.
Fernando Beltrán, a representative of Spain’s government in Aragon, later posted on X that "all the skiers affected by the accident" have been evacuated and those who were injured were receiving medical treatment.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said on X he had spoken to Azcon and offered government support.
The ski resort said on X that it was "working with emergency services" and that its management expressed "consternation and support for those affected" by the incident.