(JTA) Fourteen people, including five members of an Israeli family, were killed in a cable car accident in northern Italy on Sunday.
The accident near Lake Maggiore claimed the lives of Amit Biran, his 27-year-old wife Tal Peleg, their two-year-old Tom and two of his grandparents: Barbara and Yitzhak Cohen, aged 71 and 83.
The grandparents were visiting Italy as tourists where Biran, Peleg and their son were living. Biran was studying at the university of Pavia near Milan and had been involved in the Jewish community of Milan, according to La Republica.
The cable car, which connects the resort town of Stresa to a nearby Alpine ridge, crashed down onto the mountainside halfway through its descent. Two survivors, children aged about five and nine, were airlifted from the scene to a hospital in Turin but the older child later died, the BBC reported.
Italy officials launch manslaughter investigation after 14 killed in cable car disaster
Italian investigators have launched a multiple manslaughter investigation after 14 people were killed in a cable car accident in northern Italy, prosecutors said Monday.
A group was riding in a Stresa-Mottarone cable car from the Lido di Stresa piazza on Lake Maggiore to the nearby Mottarone mountain in the Piedmont region when a cable snapped, a spokesperson for the National Alpine Speleological Rescue Corps initially said Sunday.
The car was completing its 20-minute voyage, some 1,491 meters (4,891 feet) above sea level at the top of the mountain, when the cable broke 300 meters (984 feet) from the top of the mountain, according to Italian news agency ANSA. The car then crashed into a wooded area with no direct road access.
Italy cable car victim sent chilling message moments before horror accident killed 14
Roberta Pistolato was among 14 people who died when a cable snapped near Lake Maggiore in the mountains of north-west Italy. She sent her sister a message saying: We re getting on
Angelo Gasparro and his girlfriend Roberta Pistolato were among the dead in the cable car tragedy (Image: repubblica.it)
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