fuyumi

HONG KONG - A cable car to one of Hong Kong's biggest tourist attractions, a giant statue of Buddha, has closed indefinitely after a cabin plunged 50 metres to the ground, officials said on Tuesday.

Authorities said they were investigating the cause of the accident, which occurred late on Monday, an hour after the service shut for the night.

No one was injured, although the cabin narrowly missed a nearby road.

'We are very concerned,' a government spokesman. 'To ensure public safety, until the cause of the incident is known and we are certain that the cable car can operate safely, the government will not allow it to resume operation.'

The Tian Tan Buddha is the world's tallest outdoor seated bronze Buddha and attracts around a million visitors a year.

The cable car, which traverses 5.7 kilometres of verdant hills on the island of Lantau, is part of a major tourist complex that also includes a theatre, shops and a traditional tea house.

The cable car cost HK$1 billion (S$197.4 million) to build and took two years to complete, but has been dogged by problems.

Its launch had to be postponed last summer after a breakdown during testing left 500 visitors stuck in cabins for two hours.

Seven senior staff at Skyrail, the Australian company behind the project, resigned shortly before the opening citing a lack of transparency.

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genzo2106

:freakedout: Luckily no one was in the cabin else I think the company would be sued for sure. Hope that they ensure the rail is really certified safe b4 opening.

But guess a huge amt of revenue would be lost during the shutdown cos I was there last dec and the queue to taking the rail was really long, can take up to a couple of hrs. So you can imagine the number of ppl waiting.. :speechless: