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An Australian woman died after her backpack caught on a ski lift on a Japanese mountain and she became suspended mid-air, police said on Monday.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old woman was preparing to get off the lift on Friday morning at Tsugaike Mountain Resort in Hakuba Valley, a popular ski destination in the central region of Nagano.<\/p>\n
But a loose buckle from her backpack became caught in the lift chair, according to the lift operator, Tsugaike Gondola Lift.<\/p>\n
The woman, who had secured the rucksack with a chest strap, was then dragged by the lift and became \u201csuspended\u201d in mid-air, a spokesman for Nagano regional police said on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause the chest strap was fastened, the backpack could not be removed from the [woman\u2019s] body, and the guest was dragged along with the backpack after disembarking from the lift,\u201d Tsugaike Gondola Lift\u2019s president Tsuneo Kubo said in a statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn attendant pressed the stop button to halt the lift. After rescue efforts, the guest was transported by ambulance to hospital,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n