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Flowers and a candle in front of the departure station of the cable car from Stresa to Mottarone
Photo: Antonio Calanni / dpa
According to media reports, three men were arrested after the gondola accident in northern Italy with 14 dead.
These are employees of the cable car operator Ferrovie del Mottarone, reported the Italian news agency Ansa on Wednesday morning.
There is also a manager among the suspects.
Investigators had found that a safety braking system had been "manipulated" to avoid delays in cable car operations, Ansa quoted the investigating public prosecutor Olimpia Bossi as saying.
According to a report by the Stampa, the men were taken to Verbania remand prison that night.
The public prosecutor's office on Tuesday confiscated the video from a surveillance camera showing the accident.
It can be seen how the gondola was on Sunday shortly before the mountain station on Monte Mottarone west of Lake Maggiore when a rope suddenly broke and the cabin fell downhill.
Several of the 15 passengers were thrown from the gondola.
In the end, it got stuck on a tree, completely destroyed.
Only a young boy who lost his family in the accident survived.
The cable car connects the town of Stresa with the 1500 meter high Monte Mottarone.
Cable cars throughout Italy have only been allowed to transport day trippers again in the wake of the relaxation of the Corona restrictions.
Shut down for several years
The gondola was on the way between the small town of Stresa on the west bank of the popular lake and Monte Mottarone, whose summit cross is at 1,491 meters.
According to a report by the Italian news agency Ansa, the cable car tore about 300 meters from the mountain station, whereupon the gondola with the passengers crashed.
According to the Lift-World.info database, the cable car was shut down from 2014 to 2016, but has been in operation again since then.
Due to the corona pandemic, however, it was shut down again for a long time.
Operations only resumed on April 24th.
ala / dpa
