Ranchi: Two people were killed and several were injured after some cable cars on a ropeway collided with one another at Trikut Hills close to Baba Baidyanath Temple in Jharkhand’s Deoghar district, reports said today.

Forty-eight people are still stuck in at least 12 cabins in the ropeway and a rescue operation by the Indian Air Force (IAF) is underway. Banna Gupta, Disaster Management Minister of Jharkhand, said: “48 people are stuck there. We are trying our best to bring people out.”

The IAF received a request late Sunday night for rescuing nearly 50 tourists stuck in the Trikut Hills Ropeway Service. Acting on the request, the IAF deployed one Mi-17 and one Mi-17 V5 helicopter early this morning. The IAF contingent also has a component of IAF Garuda Commandos for conduct of the operations.

A team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has also been deployed at the spot for the rescue operation. Prima facie, the incident appears to have occurred due to a technical snag resulting in collision of cable cars, an official said, adding, however, the exact cause is yet to be ascertained.

Jharkhand Tourism says that Trikut ropeway is India’s highest vertical ropeway with a maximum lens angle of 44 degrees. The ropeway, situated around 20 km from Baba Baidyanath Temple, is around 766-metres-long, while the hill is 392-metres-high. There are 25 cabins in the ropeway. Four people can sit in each cabin. The ropeway manager and other employees fled the spot after the incident.