Australian chairlift collapse injures 18

Many suffered spinal and neck injuries

Eighteen people were injured and 65 other trapped for hours after a chairlift at a beauty spot in the Australian state of Victoria collapsed.

A pylon tower supporting the lift, near the town of Dromana, 75 kilometres (47 miles) south-east of Melbourne, broke causing the cables to come down.

Two minutes (after) we got on the lift we passed the first pole and when we got to the second pole the first one collapsed

Raaj Meet, tourist

Eyewitnesses said about a dozen chairs crashed 10 metres (33 feet) to the ground and many of the hurt passengers sustained neck and spinal injuries, although none of them were life threatening.

But the owner of the chairlift said that the situation could have been much worse if the emergency braking equipment on the popular tourist attraction had not kicked in.

Rescuing those trapped was difficult

"Supposing the pole had fallen over and the chairs kept on moving, it would have been quite disastrous. But all our safety equipment stopped it and this was a matter of great pleasure to me," Richard Hudson told ABC radio.

The most severely injured, two women and a man, were airlifted to The Alfred Hospital in the state capital Melbourne, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) away.

On Saturday one of the women was listed as being in a stable condition, the other two were described as serious but stable.

Close shave

The difficult terrain beneath the lift made rescuing those left dangling on the remaining chairs difficult.

The emergency services spent six hours picking them bring them safely down using ropes and hydraulic lifts.

About 70 people were aboard the chairlift, which is 950 metres (yards) long and rises 225 metres (740 feet) above the ground, when the incident occurred at 1420 (0320 GMT) on Friday.

Brisbane tourist Raaj Meeto said he has a lucky escape.

"Two minutes [after] we got on the lift we passed the first pole and when we got to the second pole the first one collapsed," he said.

"It was huge, the lift went down by a metre and then went up and we were wondering what was happening," he added.

The cause of the collapse is still unknown, but investigators from the workplace safety agency, WorkSafe Victoria, are at the scene.

The lift goes to the summit of a 300m peak overlooking the Mornington Bay peninsula, known as Arthur's Seat.

Mr Hudson said he does not yet know whether the chairlift will re-open in the future.