However, the presence of an elder passenger, Gul Faraz, prevented a disaster.

The schoolchildren were on their way to school when one of cables of the cable car snapped and the gondola became suspended at a height of 600 feet. Seven school boys and Gul Faraz at least 12 hours almost in the same position. The rescue took 15 hours to complete.

“Some of the children were so frustrated and were considering to jump down, but the elder passenger gave us confidence,” 15-year-old Rizwan Ullah told AFP on Wednesday.

“When the cable car was twisting, we were terrified and we started reciting the Koran and gave confidence to each other not to jump down.”

In a daring rescue operation, military helicopters plucked the first child from the chairlift and brought the student to safety after flying several sorties in the area.

Rescuers then used the cable keeping the gondola from plunging into the valley as a zipline to rescue the seven others stranded late into Tuesday night.

The owner and operator of a stricken cable were arrested on Wednesday for repeatedly ignoring safety warnings, police said.

“The cables being utilised were of subpar quality, and the machines were also in need of overhauling,” Tahir Ayub Khan, a senior police official in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told AFP on Thursday.

“The initial notice was issued to the owner in June, followed by a second notification served in August.”

He said the owner had received directives to refurbish the machinery, enhance the quality of the chains and obtain a safety certificate from the local administration.

“Both the cable car operator and the owner have been arrested by the police for an investigation into the disaster,” Khan said.

Cable cars that carry passengers – and sometimes even cars – are common across the northern areas of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province and Gilgit-Baltistan, and are vital in connecting villages and towns in areas where roads cannot be built.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar issued a directive for all chairlifts in mountainous areas to be inspected and for those that are not “safety compliant” to be immediately closed.

In 2017, 10 people were killed when a chairlift cable broke, sending passengers plunging into a ravine in a mountain hamlet near the capital Islamabad.

This wire story was edited by Aaj News staff who also added additional details.