Canadian cable car cord severed again in suspected sabotage

A cable car crumpled on the ground after the gondola ride was saboagedImage copyright
Courtesy RCMP

Image caption

The RCMP released images of some of the damage from the second act of vandalism

Canadian police are investigating after a cable car gondola was apparently sabotaged for a second time in just over a year.

The Sea-to-Sky gondola’s main cable was severed at about 4am local time (11:00 GMT) on Monday, the operator said.

No staff or guests were on the line at the time and no injuries were reported.

In August 2019, almost 30 cars on the gondola, in Squamish, north of Vancouver, fell to the ground after the cable was deliberately cut.

The gondola ride is now closed until further notice, the company said on its website.

The attraction only reopened in February after the initial sabotage caused millions of dollars in damage.

Rebuilding the attraction included the installation of a new 4.4 km (2.73 miles) 55-mm thick main cable and a new security system.

“Something you’d never would happen once in a lifetime has happened twice,” the gondola’s general manager, Kirby Brown, told local radio station Mountain FM.

He said this second incident was the act of “one bad actor who needs to be brought to justice”, adding that new security system had captured images of a suspect.

He said the company is determined to rebuild the gondola ride again.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said in a statement that they were working with other agencies to investigate the incident, and asked anyone with information to come forward.

The gondola has 30 cars, each of which can carry eight passengers on the 10-minute ride to the top, 885m (2,900ft) above sea level.

source: bbc.com