Ski vacation horror as chairlift collapse injures 30 with 80 nonetheless trapped in Spanish resort

Dozens of people have been injured after a chairlift derailed at a ski station in Spain.

Thirty people are reported to have been injured in the incident this morning at Astun Ski Resort in the heart of the Aragon Valley in north-eastern Spain. 

Seventeen of the victims are said to be seriously hurt and others are said to be still ‘clinging to the cable’.

Five helicopters and a dozen ambulances were dispatched to the resort to ferry the injured to nearby hospitals, local media said. 

Several chairlifts at the resort reportedly fell to the ground and around 80 people are understood to be still trapped.

One of the survivors, who gave his name as Oscar, told a Spanish TV station today: ‘A pulley wheel appears to have broken or come loose and the cable started to jump around and every time it happened we went up and down.

‘We were lucky in that we didn’t hit the ground but there were people in front of us who did hit the ground and received blows to their faces and other parts of their body.’

One skier who witnessed the drama said: ‘Thank God we haven’t fallen but others have and there are lots of people injured.’ 

Another witness said people were flung into the air as the chairlifts bounced up and down.

‘We are on a chair… thank God we have not fallen. But on arrival they did fall and there are people injured,’ one witness wrote on Twitter/X

‘Suddenly we heard a sound and we fell straight to the ground, inside the chair. We bounced up and down about five times and our backs were quite sore or we were hurt, but there were people who fell out of the chairs,’ María Moreno told public television TVE.

‘The truth is that we were very scared,’ said Moreno, adding that must be people with serious injuries because ‘the chair hit them directly’ when it collapsed.

‘It’s like a cable came loose and suddenly all the chairs started to bounce and people went flying,’ a young man told TVE. 

Local media said 39 people were injured, nine of them very seriously. 

Miguel Ángel Clavero, the Aragon Government’s head of emergencies, said at just after 2.15pm local time today: ‘There’s been a failure of the return on one of the chairlifts and that has caused loss of tension and led to chairlifts falling.

‘Three people have been evacuated, two by helicopter including a woman who needs an emergency operation.’

A spokesman for a regional government-run emergency response coordination centre confirmed around midday: ‘A chairlift accident has occurred at Astun Ski Resort with multiple casualties.’

A special telephone number for families of the victims has been set up.

Initially it was reported Jaca Hospital was the only one to have been put on alert but a number of other hospitals in the region have also been told casualties are on their way. 

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez said in a tweet: ‘Shocked by the news of the accident at Astun ski resort.

‘I have spoken to Aragon president Jorge Azcon to offer him the government’s full support.’

Hospitals in the region have been told casualties are on their way

Jorge Azcon, the president of the Aragon region the ski resort is in, has headed to the scene.

The Aragon regional government says the total number of casualties is unknown because evacuations are still taking place but at the moment it is aware of ‘eight people who are seriously hurt and nine who are very seriously injured.’