Naples - At least three people have died in a cable car crash near the Italian city of Naples. The gondola plummeted after a cable broke in the village of Castellammare di Stabia, as reported by the Ansa news agency, citing rescue workers.

The cable car leads up to Monte Faito, which is more than 1100 meters high and from where you normally have a view of the Gulf of Naples. Visibility was poor that day due to dense fog.

According to initial reports, there were five people in the cabin. Another passenger suffered serious injuries and a search is still underway for one of them. The authorities did not initially provide any information on the identity of the fatalities.

More than a dozen other passengers were rescued with ropes from other cabins on the train. Rescue helicopters were also deployed. The rescue work was made more difficult by the fog.

The cable car has been in operation since 1952 and the journey normally takes just under ten minutes.

A fatal accident had already occurred there in 1960.

At that time, four people died when a gondola crashed and more than 30 were injured. In summer 2021, a cabin carrying 31 passengers was stuck for more than an hour on the way down due to a power failure.

No one was injured.