ALL the tourists stranded after the Langkawi SkyCab cable car system broke down this evening have been rescued and brought to the base station in Oriental Village.

Panorama Langkawi Sdn Bhd, the operator of the cable car system, finished repairs just before 11pm.

A total of 960 tourists and 78 staff members were brought down from the 708m Mount Machinchang summit to the base station.

The evacuation was carried out in the presence of Panorama Langkawi board member Azizan Noordin, Langkawi police chief Ghazali Che Awang and Kuah assemblyman Nor Saidi Nanyan.

Azizan, who is also Langkawi Development Authority (LADA) chief executive officer, said cable car operations would be halted for a half-day tomorrow to enable maintenance and service works to be carried out.

“The operations will resume in the afternoon, after we are satisfied (with the system’s condition).”

Earlier, it was reported that 89 tourists, who were in cable cars when the breakdown occurred at 5.48pm, had been brought down to the base station about 9.30pm.

“Another three cable cars, carrying 18 tourists, are on their way down after being stuck for about four hours between the middle station and base station,” Azizan had told Bernama.

He said technical teams from Panorama Langkawi, a LADA subsidiary, had to manually mobilise the system and bring the cable cars down to the base station.

On the condition of the 89 tourists who had arrived at the base station earlier, he said one had fainted, but later regained consciousness, and was taken to Langkawi Hospital.

“The rest were okay, but tired. Some appeared to be traumatised after being stranded inside a stalled cable car, hanging a few hundred metres above ground for a couple of hours, but we are doing our best to comfort them and provide the necessary assistance.” – Bernama, February 19, 2018.