Coast Guard members are pictured during the rescue operation after a cable car accident in Türkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, April 13, 2024. One person was killed and 17 others injured late Friday when a cable car smashed into a pole in Türkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, the country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Saturday. (Mustafa Kaya/Handout via Xinhua)
ANKARA, April 13 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and 17 others injured late Friday when a cable car smashed into a pole in Türkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, the country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Saturday.
The injured have been subsequently hospitalized, the health minister said on social media platform X.
Dozens of people were stranded in mid-air in many other pods for hours because the entire system had to be shut down by local authorities.
A total of 137 people have been rescued, the semi-official Anadolu Agency reported, noting the individual killed was a 54-year-old Turkish man and that among the injured were two children.
Emergency service workers were still on-site on Saturday afternoon to rescue 29 individuals who remained stranded in five pods suspended in the air, said Anadolu.
The accident occurred at the popular Tunektepe cable car just outside the Mediterranean city of Antalya during the Eid al-Fitr holiday, which marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Antalya is Türkiye's biggest tourism hub visited by millions of domestic and foreign tourists each year. ■
A Coast Guard member is pictured during the rescue operation after a cable car accident in Türkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, April 13, 2024. One person was killed and 17 others injured late Friday when a cable car smashed into a pole in Türkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, the country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Saturday. (Mustafa Kaya/Handout via Xinhua)
Coast Guard members are pictured during the rescue operation after a cable car accident in Türkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, April 13, 2024. One person was killed and 17 others injured late Friday when a cable car smashed into a pole in Türkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, the country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Saturday. (Mustafa Kaya/Handout via Xinhua)
Rescue workers transfer people evacuated from stranded cable cars after a cable car accident in Türkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, April 13, 2024. One person was killed and 17 others injured late Friday when a cable car smashed into a pole in Türkiye's southern resort province of Antalya, the country's Health Minister Fahrettin Koca said Saturday. (Mustafa Kaya/Handout via Xinhua)
