Six children were among eight people trapped inside a cable car dangling over a deep Pakistan valley on Tuesday, officials said.

The children – who have been stranded since about 6am local time (1am GMT) – were using the chairlift to cross the valley to get to school in a mountainous area in Battagram, about 120 miles north of Islamabad. 

The cable then suddenly broke at a height of 900 feet midway through its journey in a remote mountainous region.

Syed Hammad Haider, a senior Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) provincial official, said: ‘We have requested the KP government to provide a helicopter because the relief activity is not possible without the help of a helicopter,’ he said.

The National Disaster Management Agency said in a statement that six children and two adults were on board at a height of 900 feet, and that the Pakistan Army had been asked to carry out a helicopter rescue mission. 

It said an army helicopter had been moved to the area for a rescue operation after attempts at fixing the fault had been unsuccessful. 

Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar has said that all ‘dilapidated and non-compliant chairlifts’ must close immediately, per a statement from his office. 

Many children who live in remote and mountainous parts of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province rely on cable cars to travel to and from school and back. 

However, some chairlifts lack regular maintenance, meaning they can be a risky form of travel. 

Legendary Australian Rules footballer Barry Cable repeatedly sexually abused a Perth girl while at the height of his playing career, a judge has found.

Cable, 79, was sued in the District Court of Western Australia by a woman who alleged he abused her over a five-year period beginning in 1968 when she was aged 12 or 13.

After overseeing a civil trial earlier this year, Judge Mark Herron on Friday found the abuse had taken place, awarding the woman $818,700 in damages.

But his victim may be unlikely to receive substantive financial compensation after Cable was declared bankrupt prior to the trial.

Cable has persistently denied abusing the woman and has not been charged with any criminal offences.

The victim who launched the lawsuit said Cable abused her throughout her teenage years, escalating from sexualised conversations and unwanted touching to ‘degrading’ sexual violence and forceful intercourse.

She said Cable sexually assaulted her at his family home while his wife and children were asleep in bed, in his garden shed, his car and at a public swimming pool.

Cable warned the woman no one would believe her if she told anyone about the abuse and she feared he would hurt her if she didn’t do as he said, the court heard.

The abuse triggered suicidal thoughts and caused her to start binge-eating and using laxatives, leading to a lifelong medical condition.

Cable did not actively defend the proceedings, instead relying on written material already provided.

His victim told the court she had a vivid recollection of the abuse, assisted by diary entries from the time.

Cable told the girl he was ‘training’ her to be a hit with men and she would eventually thank him for the assaults, the court heard.

‘My body was the crime scene and I’ll never forget that,’ she told the court while sobbing.

The trial also heard evidence from four other women who alleged Cable had sexually abused them when they were children.

Cable had made several unsuccessful attempts in recent years to have the proceedings permanently thrown out.

The most recent challenge was dismissed by the WA Court of Appeal last year.

One of football’s most decorated players, Cable was in 2012 elevated to legend status in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

He had an illustrious playing career for Perth and East Perth in the WAFL and North Melbourne in the VFL, going on to coach in both leagues.

In 2005, he was named by the AFL as a player and coach in the Indigenous team of the century.

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