A bus fire in western Switzerland killed six people on Tuesday after a 60-year-old man doused himself in flammable liquid and set himself alight approximately 40 minutes after boarding.

A 61-year-old woman was killed Wednesday morning (local time) when a cable car suddenly detached amid strong winds and plunged down a snowy slope at a Swiss Alpine ski resort, police said.

The incident happened at the Engelberg-Titlis ski resort, high up in the Alps in central Switzerland.

Dramatic videos from witnesses showed the gondola cabin had detached and violently toppled down a snowy slope.

“At the time of the accident one person was alone in the gondola. This person sustained fatal injuries,” Senad Sakic, with the regional police in Nidwalden canton, told reporters.

Authorities said later the victim was a 61-year-old woman from the region.

Mr Sakic said preliminary information indicated that “a gondola on the Hitlis Express cable car from Engelberg towards Stand crashed shortly after the Trubsee middle station”, he said.

Media reported that strong winds might have been the cause, with Switzerland’s Met Office indicating that winds of up to 93 kilometres an hour had been lashing the area when the accident happened.

“At 40 kilometres per hour, a wind alarm goes off for this sort of cable car. At that speed, the personnel are on high alert. And at 60 kilometres per hour, another wind alarm goes off requiring the system come to a stop,” the head of the resort’s ski lifts, Norbert Pratt, said.

He added that he did not know if high winds were the cause of the accident.

Several schoolchildren at a ski camp witnessed the crash.

“I was really shocked. We were then afraid to go back down in the gondola,” the 14-year-old Beren Akkaya told the Blick website.

The Rega rescue service confirmed to AFP that it had sent a helicopter response crew to the area.

Police would not comment on the cause of the accident, saying this was being investigated.