Terrifying new drone footage from Pakistan has revealed just how tough it was for the eight people who got stuck in a suspended cable car this week.
Luckily, the incident was resolved on Tuesday, and everyone was rescued – but only after the group spent more than 15 hours hanging hundreds of metres above the ground, dangling by just one cable after another line snapped.
Drone footage obtained by the BBC reveals just how precarious it was within the car for the survivors as they waited for the emergency services to save them, hanging above a canyon in the countryside.
The footage shows how the school children and their teacher – all of whom had been on their way to school in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province – had to position themselves carefully around the car so it didn’t topple.
After battling the windy conditions, authorities managed to rescue one person by a helicopter who hung onto a rope dropping down from the aircraft.
Once night fell, volunteers from the local community stepped in to help create a makeshift chairlift made out of wooden bed frames and ropes.
Miraculously, rescuers then managed to reach the cable car and safely retrieve everyone who was trapped, to the relief of the crowds below.
The owner and operator of the cable car system, Gul Zarin, was then arrested on Wednesday, accused of endangering lives and setting up the transport system without a permit.
Local authorities in the northwestern mountainous regions have since said they will close all cable cars which may be unsafe.
One of the survivors, 15-year-old Osama Sharif, told AP news agency that everyone on the cable car “felt a jolt, and it all happened so suddenly that we thought all of us are going to die”.
“We cried, and tears were in our eyes, as we feared the cable car will go down,” he said.
Several of the children also appealed for a school and bridge to be built in their village so they won’t have to depend on the dangerous transport in the future.