Cable car accident in Italy: custody dispute broke out - Eitan (6) "kidnapped" by relatives to Israel

After the gondola accident on Lake Maggiore, little Eitan (6) was the only survivor.

Italian media are now reporting that the six-year-old was “kidnapped”.

Pavia - It was like a miracle - little Eitan was the only one who survived the cable car accident on Lake Maggiore.

14 people, including his parents, his brother and his great-grandparents, lost their lives in the terrible accident on Pentecost Sunday.

The boy probably survived because his mother had wrapped her arms protectively around the then five-year-old Eitan.

Cable car accident in Italy: Public prosecutors are investigating kidnappings

According to media reports, the boy has now been brought to Israel from Italy.

The circumstances of the trip were initially unclear.

Italian media reported unanimously on Sunday of a “kidnapping” after the orphan had not been handed over to his father's aunt - the judicially ordered guardian - on Saturday by his grandfather as agreed.

According to the Italian news agency ANSA, the public prosecutor's office in the northern Italian city of Pavia (Lombardy) is now investigating kidnappings.

Eitan was "an Italian citizen, Pavia his home, where he grew up," said the aunt through her lawyers.

She therefore also spoke of "another tragedy for Eitan".

"We brought Eitan back home," Gali Peleg, the sister of the boy's mother who was killed in the accident on May 23, told Israeli radio station 103FM on Sunday. The background is a dispute between the boy's relatives who are claiming custody of themselves. Eitan had lost his parents when the cable car gondola crashed. A court then appointed the sister of the fatally injured father, who lived in Pavia, as guardian. The aunt had taken care of her nephew after the cable car accident. She and doctors told Eitan about the death of his parents.  

"We did not kidnap Eitan, nor will we use that word," said Gali Peleg, the mother's sister. The Israeli Foreign Ministry examined the case on Sunday. There was initially no official information from the authorities in Italy.