After a harrowing night in cable cars suspended in the shadow of Europe's highest mountain, dozens of people, including three children, were rescued Friday morning - ending an 18-hour ordeal.

In all, 110 sightseers were trapped Thursday afternoon, dangling at an altitude of 3,800 meters (12,500 feet), when the cables became tangled. How this happened is unclear, but it's thought that a strong wind may have been the culprit.

The rescue effort itself was complicated, requiring precision flight control in Europe's most mountainous terrain. Rescuers aboard French and Italian helicopters used cables to drop down onto the tops of the dangling cars, and lifted out passengers one by one.

"The extent of this rescue operation is simply unbelievable," said Col. Frederic Labrunye, commander of the provincial gendarmerie group of Haute-Savoie. "By the volume of people to rescue - we rarely rescue 110 people at the same time in high mountain - and by the environment in which it happens ... in the heart of one of the largest glaciers in Europe, over a distance of five kilometers of cable with 36 cabins."

Four helicopters plucked 65 passengers from the dangling cars, while another 12 managed to descend to the ground by rope, with the aid of rescuers.

Dozens trapped overnight

The 33 passengers trapped overnight had emergency blankets, energy bars and bottles of water, which are stocked aboard the cars.

One of the last families to be evacuated from the cable cars on Friday morning said deteriorating weather Thursday evening meant they had to spend the night in the chilled cabin. Fog and wind forced rescuers to abandon their rescue efforts as night fell.

"We just needed five more minutes to be evacuated, but it was too cloudy; they couldn't do it," Valery Delisle, who came with his sons from Aix-en-Provence, said outside a cafe at the base of the ride in the French town of Chamonix.

"One blanket between two was not enough, so I got a chill. I threw up. I wasn't feeling good," said one of Valery's sons, Louis, 23.

"But then we got by. We weren't scared, but the cold was a big problem, at least for me," he said. "The most important thing is that we all got out."

The five-kilometer-long (three mile) system, which went into operation in 1950, connects Aiguille du Midi on the French side of the mountains with Pointe Helbronner on the Italian border, offering panoramic views of Mont Blanc.

bik/sms (AP, Reuters, AFP)