Deoghar: At least one person died and 10 other injured, including two seriously injured after a mid-air ropeway accident at Tirkut hills in Deoghar district of Jharkhand on Sunday, officials said. The incident occured after a dozen ropeway trolleys collided with each other on Tirkut hills, ANI reported. Some media reports suggest the collision happened after a pulley of one of the trolleys got stuck midway.

As per reports, 40 people are still stuck in at least 12 cabins in the ropeway. The teams from National Disaster Response Force and Indo-Tibetan Border Police are engaged in rescue work. Two helicopters of the Indian Air Force are also pressed into service to evacuate those stuck inside the trolleys. Eight tourists were rescued in the morning.

#Update: ITBP personnel are on the rescue operations at Trikut Ropeway, Deoghar, Jharkhand. 8 people have been rescued till now. 40 more persons are still to be rescued. pic.twitter.com/9x10c0e9Ip
— All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) April 11, 2022

ITBP Public Relations Officer Vivek Pandey said “about 40 people who are still stuck inside the cable cars are safe,” and they are expecting to finish the rescue operation by late evening.

Rescue Operation underway
🔶@ Ropeway in Trikut, Devghar (JH)
🔶Multi agency coordination
🔶Rescues 18 person from 3 trollies
🔶Ops Continues #आपदा_सेवा_सदैव_सर्वत्र 🇮🇳@HMOIndia @BhallaAjay26 @RanchiPIB @PIBHomeAffairs @NdrfP pic.twitter.com/BGONRZZXef
— NDRF 🇮🇳 (@NDRFHQ) April 11, 2022

Deoghar Deputy Commissioner Manjunath Bhajantri said the ropeway was operated by a private player and its staff ran away after the incident. Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren said the NDRF, IAF, experts and commandos have been trying to rescue stranded people since early this morning.