110 people stuck in cable cars at Mont Blanc in Alps

In this Thursday Sept. 8, 2016 image made from video by Local Team, rescued passengers arrive at a cable car station in Courmayeur, Italy. A series of cable cars carrying tourists stopped working at high altitude over the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps on Thursday, prompting a major rescue operation, France's interior minister said. Passengers were transferred to other cable cars that brought them down the mountain to Courmayeur in Italy. (Local Team via AP) (The Associated Press)

PARIS – French officials say that 110 people are stuck on a series of cable cars over the Mont Blanc massif in the Alps.

Chamonix Mayor Eric Fournier said Thursday that "the people stuck are being evacuated by helicopter" and added that "there's nothing fundamentally to fear."

Fournier, who spoke to BFM-TV, said that Italian authorities were helping with the rescue.

It's not clear what caused the cable cars to stop — or if there was an electricity outage.

A local police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the 110 people trapped were in the Vallee Blanche Cable Car that rises to an altitude of 3,778 meters (12,395 feet).

It connects the famed Aiguille du Midi peak to the Pointe Helbronner and takes 30 minutes.