Several injured in accident during maintenance work at Swiss Alps resort

An accident during maintenance work on an out-of-service ski lift left several people injured at the Swiss mountain resort of Titlis Engelberg on Wednesday, a resort spokesman said.

No tourists were involved in the incident in the central Swiss canton of Obwalden, he added. The exact number of those injured and their condition was not immediately available. The cause was under investigation, Peter Reinle, marketing chief for the publicly listed cable car company Bergbahnen Engelberg Truebsee Titlis Bet AG, told Reuters. The Swiss newspaper Blick, quoting one of the maintenance contractors, reported that five workers were seriously injured when an auxiliary cable they were using to help shorten the main cable snapped and struck them.

Rescue workers with helicopters had been dispatched to the accident site 35 km (22 miles) south of the city of Lucerne. The Titlis cable car company's lifts, including a rotating gondola, bring people to more than 3,000 metres (9,843 feet) above sea level. While the ski season is now over, some Titlis lifts operate year-round as the region is visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists. 

(With inputs from agencies.)