ISLAMABA: Ten people were killed and two others injured when a chairlift cable broke, sending riders plunging into a ravine in a mountain hamlet near capital Islamabad Thursday, officials said.

The accident occurred some 30 kilometres (18 miles) north of Islamabad in the Charra Pani village in the tourist hill resort of Murree.

"The villagers use a chairlift to cross the river and it broke, coming off the cable, which killed ten people," local rescue official Muhammad Farooq told AFP.

"Two others were wounded," he said. The local police station confirmed the incident. According to Geo News, the injured were shifted to the Holy Family Hospital in Rawalpindi and the dead bodies have been handed over to the families.

Chairlift accidents are common in mountainous areas of Pakistan, where the lifts are often used to cross rivers. Four people drowned when a chairlift broke in Diamer district of Gilgit-Baltistan in northern Pakistan last month.