At least nine killed in Austrian cable car tragedy

A helicopter accidentally dropped part of its load of concrete on a cable car at an Austrian ski resort today, and at least nine tourists were killed when the gondola hurtled to the ground and passengers were catapulted out of two nearby cable cars, police said.

The accident occurred in the ski resort town of Soelden, 25 miles south-west of Innsbruck and some 300 miles west of Vienna, said Edelbert Kohler, head of the criminal police in Innsbruck.

The helicopter was hauling goods to the top of the cable car lift for construction work, when a huge chunk, Kohler said.

Four people were injured in the accident, while three others in the cabins escaped injury, said Jakob Falkner, an executive of the cable car company. But Red Cross officials quoted by the Austria Press Agency spoke of seven injured - five seriously.

The news agency said the piece of concrete weighed some 1,500 pounds.

Kohler initially said it appeared the chunk hit the cable, causing the gondolas to swing out of control and throwing the victims out. But Falkner told Austrian state television that the concrete directly hit one of the cabins – a version later verified by Kohler.

He said some of the victims appeared to be foreigners and children were among the injured, but he declined to discuss further details.

Twelve rescue helicopters, including police and army choppers, hovered over the scene of the accident, while dozens of emergency workers rushed to the scene on foot.

The glacier skiing area around Soelden – some of it as high as 3,000 metres - is popular with summer tourists who flock to its perennially snow-covered alpine peaks.

The accident evoked memories of another airborne ski lift tragedy in neighbouring Italy, where a low-flying US Marine jet sliced a ski gondola’s cables in 1998, killing 20 people.

It appeared to be the worst of its kind since 155 skiers and snowboarders died in a November 2000 alpine cable-car fire – Austria’s deadliest single winter resort tragedy.