Israeli boy, 5, is sole survivor of horrific Italy cable car crash

A five-year-old Israeli boy is recovering in hospital as the sole survivor of a horrific cable car disaster in Italy that killed 14 people.

The gondola tumbled down part of the mountain overlooking Lake Maggiore in the north of the country after the lead cable apparently snapped.

The boy, named by the Israeli foreign ministry as Eitan Biran, remains in a Turin hospital with multiple broken bones.

Eitan’s father Amit Biran, who was killed, was studying at the University of Pavia near Milan and had been involved in the Jewish community of Milan, according to La Republica.

His wife Tal Peleg-Biran, 27, and their two-year-old son Tom also died, along with two great-grandparents, Barbara and Yitzhak Cohen, aged 71 and 83.

The ministry said that Amit’s sister Aya, who was not involved in the crash, was at Eitan Biran’s bedside and that other relatives were flying to Italy to join them.

Arrangements were being made to repatriate the bodies to Israel.

The other eight victims were all Italian residents.

Marcella Severino, the mayor of Stresa, the lakefront town at the foot of the mountain, quoted witnesses as saying the gondola reeled back down the cable until hitting a pylon.

It then crashed to the ground and tumbled over repeatedly.

La Stampa reported one Italian couple, Roberta Pistolato and Angelo Vito Gasparro texted just before boarding the cable car: “We’re going up in the funicular. It’s paradise here.”

Authorities have launched an investigation into the tragedy.