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A German tourist was killed beside his wife in a ski lift when his chair suddenly slid 230ft backwards and collided with another behind them in Montenegro.
The fatal accident happened at around 1pm on Saturday at the Savin Kuk resort near the mountain town of Žabljak, a popular winter destination in the country’s north.
The 34-year-old man from Germany died at the scene. His wife, aged 30, was riding with him and witnessed the entire incident.
She became trapped on the chairlift and was later rescued with injuries, according to the town’s mayor, who spoke to Montenegrin television.
Officials said one of the double chairs came loose, slid along the cable and struck the chair behind it, trapping other victims for hours.
Emergency services were called to the resort, where prosecutors ordered the immediate closure of the lift while investigations began.
At least three other tourists were left stranded in their chairs for several hours before rescue teams were able to bring them down safely.
No official cause had been confirmed by Sunday, with authorities saying a full technical examination would be carried out.
The public prosecutor’s office said it would conduct a detailed investigation into how the failure occurred.
A two-person chairlift at the resort, where the incident took place. A detailed investigation into the accident is currently underway, according to the public prosecutor’s office
The accident happened on Saturday at the Savin Kuk resort near the mountain town of Žabljak
Žabljak mayor Radoš Žugić said the incident was being treated with the utmost seriousness, stressing the importance of visitor safety in a region heavily dependent on tourism.
‘We insist on a comprehensive and transparent investigation to determine those responsible,’ he said.
Despite the fatality, Serbian news outlet Blic said that the ski lift was back in operation the following day.
The tragedy follows a string of serious chairlift accidents across the world in recent months.
In January, two young women were left in intensive care after a lift collapsed at the Astún ski resort in Spain’s Pyrenees. That resort was temporarily shut while rescue services responded, but later reopened.
Investigators in Spain said a pulley malfunction likely caused the cable to slacken, sending several chairs crashing to the ground and throwing skiers into the snow.
In another incident in September, three people were killed, and nine were injured after a chairlift cable snapped on Mount Elbrus, Russia’s highest peak.
At the time of that accident, 37 passengers were riding the cableway in the North Caucasus region.
Last year in December, a chairlift detached at the Heavenly Mountain Resort in California, causing multiple seats to fall from the cable. The incident resulted in several injuries.
