Astonishing footage shows how Pakistani children were forced to cling on while inches from falling 1,200ft to their deaths in a cramped cable car for 16 hours before they were rescued.<br /><br />Drone footage obtained by the BBC shows the passengers holding on as the carriage hangs precariously at an angle high above the remote Allai valley in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. <br /><br />One of the passengers is then seen using a zip wire to reach safety. <br /><br />All of those inside the cable car, six children and two adults were saved during a rescue operation on Tuesday that included zip-wire experts and a military helicopter.<br /><br />The owner of the cable car company was later arrested by police on several charges, including negligence and endangering valuable lives. <br /><br />Schoolchildren who were rescued from the broken cable car said on Wednesday they repeatedly feared they were about to die during the 16-hour ordeal, despite attempts by their parents to reassure them over mobile phones.<br /><br />Several of the children, who had been on their way to school Tuesday when one of the car's cables snapped, also appealed for a school and bridge to be built in their village so they wouldn't have to ride the cable car in the future.<br /><br />One of the youngest was grabbed by a commando attached to a helicopter by rope, while others were lowered to the ground in a makeshift chairlift constructed from a wooden bed frame and ropes.<br /><br />'I had heard stories about miracles, but I saw a miraculous rescue happening with my own eyes,' said 15-year-old Osama Sharif, one of those rescued.<br /><br />Osama was headed to school on Tuesday to receive the results of his final exam when one of the cables snapped.<br /><br />'We suddenly felt a jolt, and it all happened so suddenly that we thought all of us were going to die,' he said in a telephone interview.<br /><br />Some of those aboard had mobile phones and started making calls, with worried parents trying to reassure the children.<br /><br />'They were telling us don't worry, help is coming,' he said. <br /><br />After several hours, the passengers saw helicopters flying in the air.<br /><br />On Wednesday, police arrested Gul Zarin, the owner of the cable car, on charges of ignoring safety measures. <br /><br />Local authorities in the northwestern mountainous regions said they would close all cable cars believed to be unsafe.<br /><br />Thousands of people turned out to watch the risky operation on Tuesday. <br /><br />At one stage, a rope lowered from a helicopter swayed wildly as a child, secured by a harness, was pulled up.<br /><br />The air currents churned up by the whirling blades risked weakening the only cable preventing the cable car from crashing to the bottom of the river canyon.<br /><br />'We cried, and tears were in our eyes, as we feared the cable car would go down,' Osama said.<br /><br />After sunset, with the helicopters no longer able to fly, rescuers shifted tactics. <br /><br />They used a makeshift chairlift to approach the cable car using the one cable that was still intact, local police chief Nazir Ahmed said.<br /><br />Shouts of 'God is great' erupted as the cha
