From helicopters to ziplining commandos: How stranded children were rescued in 12-hr mission over Pakistan ravine

Military helicopters and ziplining commandos rescued eight people — including six schoolboys — who were trapped for hours on Tuesday in a stricken cable car high above a remote Pakistani valley.

The daring rescue began with a helicopter plucking a child to safety after almost 12 hours, but it was forced back to base as bad weather closed in and night fell.

Then, commandos from Pakistan's Special Service Group (SSG) — known as the Maroon Berets — used the cable keeping the gondola from plunging into the valley as a zipline to rescue the rest of those stranded.

Here's a video posted on X (formerly Twitter):

"I thought it was my last day and I will be no more," one of the rescued boys, Attaullah Shah, told AFP.

"God has granted me a second life," the 15-year-old said.

Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar called the rescuers "heroes of the nation".

"Great team work by the military, rescue departments, district administration as well as the local people," he wrote on X.

Local officials earlier said two children had been plucked by helicopter from the stricken gondola, but the military later confirmed only one had been rescued that way.

"After tireless efforts by highly skilled pilots and SSG personnel, a child was rescued but the mission had to be canceled due to bad weather," the military's media wing said in a statement.

"Further efforts were then made by the SSG troops and a special zipliner team for this purpose was flown to the crash site by army helicopters."

Bilal Faizi, an official with Pakistan's emergency service, said the two adults were the last to be brought to safety.

A video of the first rescue showed a teenager in a harness hanging at the bottom of a swinging rope under a helicopter as crowds cheered with relief.

"Once everyone had been rescued, the families started crying with joy and hugging each other," emergency services official Waqar Ahmad told AFP.

"People had been constantly praying because there was a fear that the rope might break. People kept praying until the last person was rescued."

The six children had been on their way to school accompanied by two adults when the chairlift broke down at around 7am (0200 GMT) midway through its journey above the lush green Allai Valley.

Residents used mosque loudspeakers to alert neighbourhood officials of the emergency, and hundreds of people gathered on both sides of the ravine -- hours away from any sizeable town -- to watch the drama unfold.

Military helicopters flew several sorties and an airman was lowered by a harness to deliver food, water and medicine to the gondola.

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