Investigation Underway as Cable Car Collapse Kills One Person, Injures 20 More
MEDELLIN, Colombia (AP) —
A cable car in the Colombian city of Medellin failed and plunged onto a sidewalk next to a station platform Wednesday, killing at least one person and injuring 20 others, officials said.
It was not immediately clear if the person who died was on the ground or was a passenger in the gondola-style car, which was part of the city’s public transportation system. Ten people were in the car when it fell, Medellín Mayor Federico Gutiérrez said on the social media platform X.
“I deeply regret the death of John Jairo Londoño Arango due to this morning’s accident on the Metrocable,” the mayor wrote in his Spanish-language post.
“The Metrocable in the northeastern area (Line K) of metro de Medellín will be suspended until the causes of this tragedy are clearly identified,” he continued, “the pertinent corrective measures are taken and the safety of the users of the system is guaranteed.
“The Metro company does all the evaluations. The other lines of the transportation system operate normally.”
Lamento profundamente el fallecimiento de John Jairo Londoño Arango a causa del accidente de esta mañana en el metrocable 🙏🏻. Hemos activado todas las rutas de atención psicosocial de la Administración Distrital @AlcaldiadeMed para su familia, así como para las demás personas que…
— Fico Gutiérrez (@FicoGutierrez) June 26, 2024
A 55-year-old man died of multiple injuries after being admitted to the Clínica CES hospital in Medellin, the hospital said in a statement. Local officials said the 20 people injured received both medical attention and psychological support.
Some 200 other passengers remained inside 40 of the system’s cable cars while emergency personnel assisted the injured at the scene, city disaster manager Carlos Andrés Quintero said
Medellin’s Metrocable runs six lines aimed at serving some of the city’s low-income neighborhoods that are informally built on steep hills.
One of the cable cars hit another cabin during a descending ride and then failed as it approached a station in the city’s northeastern area, Metrocable manager Tomás Elejalde told reporters.
The cause of the accident was under investigation, officials said.
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