A mountaintop cable car carrying 15 passengers plunged to the ground in northern Italy on Sunday, killing at least twelve people, authorities said.

Two children aged nine and five were rescued by Italy's Alpine rescue service and taken by helicopters to a pediatric hospital in nearby city of Turin where they're being treated for critical injuries.

The cable car collapsed near the summit of the Stresa-Mottarone line in the Piedmont region around 12:30 p.m. and was very high off the ground, the Alpine rescue service's Walter Milan told Italy's SkyTG24 news channel.

"This is the final toll of the accident as the car was carrying 11 passengers when the disaster happened," Simone Bobbio, a spokesman for Italy's alpine rescue service for the Piedmont region, told Reuters.

Milan said that the cable line, first inaugurated in August 1970, had been renovated in 2016 and had only recently reopened after coronavirus lockdowns forced the closures of ski lifts across Italy.

The cable car ride, popular among tourists, offers spectacular views of the Alps and last 20 minutes, for a maximum capacity of 40 passengers in its two cars.

Mottarone reaches a height of 1,491 meters above sea level and overlooks a picturesque lake. When the cabin collapsed, it was only 100 meters from the summit, said Italy's ministry of infrastructure.

Stresa's mayor Marcella Severino, who went to visit the site of the accident, said that "witnesses saw the cabin halting quickly" and then "slipping off the pulley and precipitating," as reported by Italian newspapers La Repubblica.

Italian media suggests the cause of the accident might have been the ripping of the cable, but authorities have not yet confirmed exactly what might have happened.

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