Nightmare for dozens of tourists trapped overnight in a French cable car.

Thirty-three tourists have reportedly spent the night trapped inside a cable car in the French Alps, after it suddenly came to a halt yesterday afternoon.

A further 65 were freed late Thursday, local time, in an international rescue effort involving helicopters from Italy and France. However, darkness and rough conditions forced authorities to abandon the mission until the morning.

The stranded travellers were left dangling mid-air between Aiguille du Midi in France and Pointe Helbronner in Italy, at an altitude of roughly 3778 metres.

The chief executive of the cable car company, Mathieu Dechavanne, confirmed to The New York Times that rescue workers managed to climb into all but two of the cars, where they spent the night with stranded passengers.

“They have a survival kit in each of the cable cars with cereal bars, water and survival blankets, and we contacted them by phone to explain everything,” he said.

Dechavanne said the incident occurred when the cables became crossed at numerous points around 2pm Thursday afternoon, reports The New York Times.

“We managed to uncross the cables in two places by pulling them, but we did not manage to uncross them in the third one,” he said.

Authorities were notified at around 5pm, when Dechavanne called for help evacuating passengers.

It’s unclear whether any Australians were on board at the time of the incident, but one Australian woman Louise Banks had reportedly ridden the cable car just hours prior.

“I am so thankful that I wasn’t there,” she wrote on Instagram. “I’ve done a lot of cable cars in my time and this one was definitely the fastest, and bouncier.”

The scenic Valle Blanche cable car reportedly holds the world record for the highest vertical ascent, beginning at an altitude of 2,807 metres. The 5-kilometre journey usually takes 30-35 minutes to complete.

Featured image: Pixabay.