Darjeeling, Oct. 19: While the cable car accident proved tragic for some, others had a providential escape, left only with memories of those horrifying moments.

The holidays of Abdul Razaaq and his wife Nasreen, from Guwahati, could easily have ended in tragedy. As cabins 15, 1 and 2, plunged down the valley, the gondola in which the couple was travelling stopped 5 metres from the fatal post. For two hours, the couple was left dangling in the air, about 100 feet above the ground.

Even as an emergency rope was lowered down from their cabin, it fell short of the necessary length. As a result, no rescuers could get there.

“We could see the rescue operation and were relieved after we reached safety,” said Razzaq after landing at the North Point station. The cabin Razzaq was travelling in (No 3) and cabin 14, (which was on the other side and going towards Vah-Tukvar), was closest to the accident site.

A little below them in another car, was a group of four college students, from Sibsagar in Assam, who spent some frightening moments as they watched the accident unfold in front of them.

“We just wanted to take a quick ride and return to Siliguri at 2 pm to proceed to Assam, but fate had something else in store for us,” said Julfiria Begum, a member of the group.

Julfiria, along with 22 friends from Nazia College, Sibsagar, had come for an excursion. After reaching Calcutta on October 10, they had travelled to many tourist sites and had finally reached Darjeeling on October 16.

Even as Julfiria was weeping with joy after being rescued, her friends Mridusmita and Nazrina said: “It was very scary as the wind would often rock the cabin. We, however, derived strength from one another and thought that now that everyone was concerned about our safety nothing dreadful would happen and the worst was already over. We initially thought the electricity had gone off but later realised that we were caught up in a major accident.”

The group of students also had their teacher Khalidu Reham to give them hope all along but they described the incident as their “worst moment” and thought that the wait in the cable car lasted for “eternity”.

Even as the girls from Assam seemed visibly shaken, two young boys, Kanish (9) and Nelav (7), seemed perfectly stable at the end of their two-hour ordeal. The boys were with their mother Neelam, a resident of Ranchi. Though their mother could not stop weeping on returning safely to the station, the boys seemed calm and confident. “We were with our mother and were sure that nothing would happen to us,” said Kanish.

While most of the victims who were critically injured, were too shocked to speak at the Eden hospital, others narrated their experience of being in the cable car during the harrowing moments when the tragedy occurred.

Soma Pal, (35), from Kharagpur said: “I just heard a bang and then I don’t know what happened. I can’t recollect too clearly about what happened in the next few moments. Later on, I realised it was an accident.”