69 rescued from stalled cable cars

WHAT should have been a five-minute cable car ride turned into a nearly 12-hour ordeal for dozens of people who had be rescued yesterday after two cars lost power over New York's East River.

The passengers from one car were plucked one by one and transferred to a rescue gondola shortly before dawn, while those in the second car, at the edge of Manhattan, were taken out with a crane.

At least a dozen of the 69 passengers were children or babies who had boarded the tram at the start of rush hour on Tuesday evening.