A skier has been killed after a cable car detached and rolled down a snow-covered mountainside at a Swiss ski resort.
The accident occurred during strong winds which had already forced the closure of several lifts at the Titlis resort, with horrifying footage shared online showing the gondola tumbling down the mountain and flipping several times.
One image shows the crumpled gondola lying at the bottom of the slope, while footage from the scene shows a rescue helicopter touching down with emergency crews attempting to resuscitate the victim.
A witness said: “It just came off the cable and started rolling.
“They tried to resuscitate them for around 30 minutes. There was a strong wind. Then there was a jerk, and the cable moved. Finally, the cabin crashed.”
Local police have now revealed that a 61-year-old woman had died after being rushed to a nearby hospital, and confirmed that she was the sole occupant of the gondola at the time.
The crash occurred as strong winds battered the region, with gusts exceeding 80 kilometres per hour.
Some lifts at the resort in Engelberg, a village in the canton of Obwalden, were still operating despite the adverse conditions.
It comes a few months after a similar incident in which six people were injured when a cable car slammed into a station barrier in Italy in December.
Around 100 people were left stranded when the crash occurred 9,000 feet above the ground at the Macugnaga cable car, in the Verbano-Cusio-Ossola region of Piedmont.
Local reports indicated that the gondola arrived at the station too quickly, prompting authorities to halt the lift entirely as emergency crews worked to evacuate those still trapped.
The stranded skiers were evacuated by the National Alpine Rescue Corpsvia two firefighter helicopters, while the six injured were treated by on-site medics and transported to a local hospital via air ambulance.
