All eight people who were stuck in a cable car dangling hundreds of metres above a ravine in Pakistan’s north-west for many hours have now been rescued.

In a slow and dangerous operation, a military helicopter rescued one child, while teams on the ground recovered the rest of the group after dark. They were helped to safety along a zip line, with a huge crowd on top of the hillside celebrating their rescue.

The group were on their way to school when one of the car’s cables snapped. It was left hanging precariously across 274m (900ft) above the ground and in high winds.

Pakistan’s caretaker prime minister, Anwaar ul Haq Kakar, said he was relieved, and thanked all of those who were involved in the rescue. Pakistan’s army said the rescue mission had been “extremely difficult and dangerous”.

The incident happened at about 07:00 local time (02:00 GMT) on Tuesday near the city of Battagram in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Six children, aged between 10 and 16 years old, were trapped, along with two adults.

One of the children, a teenage boy, has a heart condition and was unconscious for several hours, an adult on board named Gulfaraz told local media. A child also fainted due to “heat and fear”, a rescue worker told Reuters news agency, although it was unclear if that was the same child.