MADRID - A ski lift collapsed at a resort in the Spanish region of Aragon on Saturday, injuring dozens of people, nine of them very seriously and eight seriously, the regional government said.

Around 80 people remain trapped, hanging in the chairlift at the ski resort of Astún, in the province of Huesca, according to state TV channel TVE.

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"It's like a cable has come off, the chairs have bounced and people have been thrown off," a witness told TVE.

The cause of the cable failure remains unknown.

The ski resort's management declined to comment and was not immediately able to say if foreigners were among the injured.

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Several helicopters were working in the area to rescue the skiers who were still trapped on the chairlift and transfer the injured to nearby hospitals.

The Astún ski resort, mainly popular among Spanish skiers, is located close to the Spanish border with France, in the Pyrenees mountain range.