Terrifying moment skiers plunge up to 50ft onto slopes below after chairlifts derailed and swung 'virtually 180 degrees' at Spanish mountain resort

What happened shouldn't have happened and we're working on trying to find out the exact cause and minimise risks, but zero risk doesn't exit.

Ski resort boss Andres Pita said

The chairlift has just come to a screeching halt and it's a miracle we haven't been killed

A skier filming the horror scenes said seconds before skiers were seen plunging to the ground

Thank God we haven't fallen but others have and there are lots of people injured."

Another skier who saw the drama unfold commented

Apparently, there was a failure in the return pulley of one of the chairlifts and this caused the cable to lose tension, causing some chairs to fall and others to remain hanging,

Clavero said

The truth is that we were very scared,

said Moreno

We are talking about around 30 to 35 people injured, including serious, very serious and less serious injuries,

Miguel Angel Clavero, the director of emergencies for the Aragon region, where the incident occurred, told public television TVE

It’s like a cable has come off, the chairs have bounced and people have been thrown off,

one witness told RTVE

All of our affection goes to the injured and their families,

Sanchez said

We bounced up and down about five times and our backs were quite sore or we were hurt, but there were people who fell out of the chairs,

María Moreno told public television TVE

Pedro Sánchezprime Minister

Shocked by the news of the accident at Astun ski resort

Spanish PM Pedro Sanchez said in a tweet

There's been a failure of the return on one of the chairlifts and that has caused loss of tension and led to chairlifts falling

Miguel Ángel Clavero, the Aragon Government's head of emergencies, said at just after 2.15pm local time today

A pulley wheel appears to have broken or come loose and the cable started to jump around and every time it happened we went up and down

One of the survivors, who gave his name as Oscar, told a Spanish TV station today

A chairlift accident has occurred at Astun Ski Resort with multiple casualties.

A spokesman for a regional government-run emergency response coordination centre confirmed around midday