At least eight people have been injured after a malfunctioning ski lift threw people from their seats at a ski resort in Georgia.

Skiers and snowboarders were forced to jump from the faulty chairlift on Friday as their seats hurtled backwards down the mountain, with some people falling from carriages at speed, in what one witness likened to “a scene from a Final Destination film”.

Videos of the accident at Gudauri resort in Georgia show a pile-up of broken and twisted chairs at the bottom of the lift as bystanders scream at people to jump.

Ryan Wilkinson, 24, from Kent, was queuing at the bottom of the lift with a group of friends when he saw the incident happen. He said the ski lift had been closed for repairs all week, but reopened on Friday morning.

“The lift stopped for a minute. There is a language barrier with the Georgians, so we didn’t know what was happening. Then it started reversing backwards slowly, then it got quicker. There was a guy in the office smashing on a machine and shouting who seemed powerless to stop it,” he said……

(THE GUARDIAN)