Ottawa, Aug 11 (IANS) Police in Canada have launched an investigation into an incident where someone deliberately cut the cord of cable car gondola in British Columbia, felling the 2-km route, the media reported on Sunday.
The Sea-to-Sky gondola, which carries up to 240 passengers at a time on its 30 cars and is located along Highway 99 in Squamish, wasn’t operating at the time of the incident on Saturday morning, the Canadian broadcaster CBC reported.
The trip from the base to the summit 885 metres above sea level lasts approximately 10 minutes and gives visitors views over Howe Sound. It is a major tourist destination in British Columbia.
“We believe the cables were cut and this was a deliberate act of vandalism, ” said Inspector Kara Triance with Squamish Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
“At this time, it’s a crime scene.”
Almost all of the 30 gondola cars attached to the cable crashed to the ground, according to staff working overnight. No injuries have been reported so far.
“It’s just an incredibly unusual thing to happen,” CBC quoted Kirby Brown, Sea-to-Sky’s general manager, as saying. “We just did our maintenance on the line very recently and it was a big, thick, rope.”
The cable is 55 mm in diameter and is made up of six strands. It regularly transports several tonnes when the gondola cars are loaded and is made to withstand most weather events, Brown added.
–IANS
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