A five-year-old Israeli boy is the only survivor of a cable-car crash in Stresa-Mottarone, northern Italy, last Sunday, which claimed the lives of  his parents, younger brother Tom and his great-grandparents.

The disaster left another nine people dead.

Eitan Moshe Biran was airlifted to hospital following the accident, in which he sustained multiple leg fractures and thoracic traumas. 

Doctors expressed cautious optimism for his condition on Monday, confirming he had not suffered permanent brain damage.

Italian doctors told reporters a hug from his father may have protected Eitan from more serious harm.

According to Jpost, upon arriving at hispital he told doctors: “I’m scared, leave me alone.”

He was sedated and remains in critical condition in intensive care.

Eitan Biran’s father, Amit Biran, 30, had moved to Italy to study medicine.

He lived with his wife, Tal Peleg, 27, and their two children, Eitan and two-year-old Tom, in Pavia, a town 35 kilometres south of Milan. 

Milo Hasbani, president of the Jewish Community of Milan, told the Italian Jewish newspaper Pagine Ebraiche that “Amit worked for us as a security guard. 

“He studied medicine and was always kind, always smiling. He was an exquisite person. This is a tragedy that leaves us speechless.” 

Amit’s sister, Aya Biran, told Italian media that she had learned about the tragic accident only when she received condolence messages from her friends. 

Ms Biran, who is a doctor and lives in the Pavia region with her husband and two children, said: 
“At the fourth message, I started to think that another rocket had hit Israel.

“I tried to call my brother, and he did not answer. Then I tried to call my sister-in-law, and she also did not answer.” It was not until hours later that she received an official communication from the Italian authorities.

Asked about her nephew who had survived the disaster, she said: “At the beginning, we did not know where he was.

 “We understood that [the child hospitalised] was him after we saw that his name did not appear in the list of the victims.

“My nephew has a head trauma. We will need to see how it goes.”

Eitan Biran’s family has asked the press to respect their privacy and for wellwishers to pray for the boy.

In a statement, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said: “We all send our deepest condolences to the Biran family in the wake of the tragic disaster in Italy. We pray for the recovery of Eitan. The State of Israel will assist the family in everything and anything in the aftermath of this difficult tragedy.”

The Stresa-Mottarone cable car takes 20 minutes to transfer tourists and locals from the town on Lake Maggiore, almost 1,400 metres above sea level, to the top of Mottarone Mountain.

Initial reports said that the cable which was hoisting the car up the slope had snapped as the vehicle reached the end of its 20-minute journey to the peak.

The tragedy is Italy’s worst cable car disaster since 1998, when a low-flying US military jet cut through the cable of a ski lift in Cavalese, in the Dolomites, killing 20 people.