More than 200 skiers rescued as cable cars left stranded by fallen tree

Two hundred holidaymakers needed a dramatic rescue after a cable car stopped working in hurricane-strength winds. The skiers were suspended in mid-air for several hours after a tree fell on power lines in the Val Gardena resort in northern Italy. A painstaking operation saw rescue teams lowered from a helicopter to each of the 20 cabins in turn. Rescuers then forced open the cabin doors, tied those inside to ropes and lowered them slowly back to the snow - all this in freezing temperatures and winds of up to 80mph.

A staff member noticed the tree and stopped everything. They must build a monument to this gentleman because if the car had hit the tree we would have had a tragedy.

A rescued holidaymaker

There were on injuries. The drama came as stormy weather caused havoc across much of northern Italy and claimed at least two lives in other incidents. A woman was crushed by a falling tree in Urbino in the Emilia Romagna region while a man died behind the wheel of his car when it was hit by a rockfall near Lucca in Tuscany.

Europe Cable car rescue