Trapped tourists rescued from cable cars in Tenerife

Dozens of tourists were evacuated by helicopter today from shelters at the top of a volcano on Spain's Tenerife island where they spent the night after being plucked from two cable cars that stopped mid-air.

A total of 111 people, including eight children, were forced to stay at three shelters on Mount Teide, the highest mountain in Spain and a major tourist attraction, cable car company Teleferico del Teide said in a statement.

They included tourists who became trapped in two cable cars that stopped working mid-air yesterday roughly 60 metres from the ground, as well as visitors who were already at the top of the volcano and were waiting to get down.

Helicopters, firemen, and park rangers were called in to help with a pulley system to get about 70 tourists who were trapped in the cable cars back to the ground during a four- hour rescue operation.

Each was placed in a harness and then lowered through a hatch of the cable car.

Many of the tourists who were plucked from the cable cars made it to the base station of the volcano at an altitude of 2,356 metres on foot despite the rocky terrain, but those with reduced mobility spent the night at the shelters.

Four helicopters evacuated the tourists, many wearing shorts and sandals, from the shelters today to the base station, an

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