British couple killed in Naples cable car crash named

A British couple who were among four people killed in a cable car crash near Naples have been named as Elaine and Graeme Winn.

Elaine, 58, and Graeme, 65, lived in Market Harborough, Leicestershire.

The mountain cable car cabin plunged to the ground after one of the cables supporting it snapped on Thursday, local officials said.

The cable car operator said it had passed a safety inspection just two weeks ago and that a criminal investigation has been opened.

Earlier reports carried by some Italian media had given the woman’s name as Margaret Elaine Winn but it is now believed she was known as Elaine.

The two other victims include the driver of the cable car, named by authorities as 59-year-old Carmine Parlato, and an Israeli woman identified as Janan Suliman.

A fifth person in the cabin, Ms Suliman’s brother, was “extremely seriously injured” in the crash and airlifted to hospital, where he remains in a critical condition, officials said.

Authorities in Torre Annunziata have opened an investigation into the cause of the crash.

Sixteen people were rescued from a second cabin which was also on the line near the bottom of the valley at the time of the incident. They were winched to safety.

The mayor of Castellammare di Stabia – where the cable car is located – said it was believed a traction cable had snapped.

“The emergency brake downstream worked but clearly not the one on the cabin that was about to reach the top of the hill,” Luigi Vicinanza told Italian media on Thursday.

He added that there had been regular safety checks on the cable car line which runs the two miles (3km) between the town to the top of Mount Faito.

The investigation into the incident will examine the possibility that strong winds could have been among the causes of the incident.

The cable car service had been suspended on Tuesday and Wednesday due to adverse weather conditions and had only resumed full operations on Thursday morning.

British tourist Megan Pacey was near the site of the incident on Thursday with her husband and their two young children when they saw the suspended cable car.

Ms Pacey said: “We were within a minute or two of [the incident] happening.”

“We watched the first couple of people come down in a harness, and as we left, there was a sense of urgency that had kicked in.”

She said flowers and candles had been left as tribute on the railway station steps on Friday.

A day of mourning will be held in the town, which is between Pompeii and Sorrento, and all local events for the Easter holiday have been cancelled.

The president of the region, Vincenzo De Luca, said it was a “truly tragic and painful” day.

Shortly after the crash, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who was on a trip to Washington, expressed her “sincere condolences” to the families of the victims.

The Mount Faito cable car has been operating since 1952. A similar accident on the line in 1960 left four people dead.