Italian cable car brakes ‘tampered with’, say prosecutors

Crash investigators say emergency brakes had been deactivated to avoid disruptions to service

The emergency brakes on a cable car that crashed in northern Italy on Sunday, killing 14 people, had been tampered with", prosecutors said as three people were detained early on Wednesday morning.

The three people detained, who include the owner of the firm that manages the Stresa-Mottarone funicular near Lake Maggiore in the Piedmont region, are alleged to have made a conscious gesture" by tampering" with the emergency brakes in order to avoid disruptions" to the cable car service, Ansa reported, citing the chief public prosecutor, Olimpia Bossi.