Rescue operations continue in Jharkhand ropeway accident
A man falling to his death from a helicopter on Monday during a rescue operation captured the trauma of a tense 30 hours in Jharkhand’s Deoghar, where at least two people were killed in separate incidents triggered by the malfunctioning of a ropeway the previous evening.
By Monday evening, 43 people had been rescued from 24 cable cars on the 770-m ropeway to the Trikut hills, which is a popular tourist spot. Eleven of them were rescued on Sunday evening, including a woman who succumbed later to injuries sustained inside a cable car that “swung wildly” during the mishap, officials and eyewitnesses said.
At least 15 people, including an IAF Garud commando, were still stuck on the ropeway with some without food and water inside cable cars that could not be accessed by rescuers. “We are hoping that the rescue operation will be over by tomorrow. We will be starting early in the morning,” National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) D-G Atul Karwal said.
Jharkhand Tourism Department director Rahul Sinha said the ropeway’s axle got dislodged between 4 pm and 4.30 pm on Sunday, resulting in the ropeway stopping midway.