A Buddhist monk injured in a cable car crash in Sri Lanka died on Sunday, raising the death toll to eight in the worst accident of its kind, police said.
Seven monks, including three foreigners, were killed instantly when their cabin plunged down the mountainside near a forest monastery in the northwestern Kurunegala district on Wednesday night.
Six others had been taken to hospital for injuries, four in critical condition.
“One of the six monks in hospital succumbed to his injuries late last night,” a police official told AFP.
He said the funerals of five monks — four Sri Lankans and a Romanian — were held on Saturday at a cemetery near their monastery.
Buddhist monks carry coffins of fellow monks during a funeral ceremony at the Na Uyana Monastery in Melsiripura on September 27, 2025. / Credit: -/AFP via Getty Images
A Russian monk is to be buried along with the Sri Lankan monk who died in hospital, a spokesperson for the monastery said.
He added that the remains of the third foreign monk, an Indian national, had been repatriated to his relatives in India.
The 13 monks had crowded into the small makeshift cabin as they headed to meditation units atop a mountain within the vast Na Uyana monastery, officials said. The monastery covers over 5,000 acres of forest on the mountain range, and is home to about 150 Buddhist monks, according to its website.
Initial investigations suggested that the cable had snapped, sending the cabin careering downhill at high speed before it jumped the track and crashed into a tree.
Buddhist monks stand at the site of a cable car accident in Sri Lanka’s north-western district of Kurunegala on September 25, 2025. At least eight Buddhist monks, including three foreigners, were killed when their cable-pulled rail car snapped and crashed down a mountainside in north-western Sri Lanka, police said. / Credit: -/AFP via Getty Images
Sri Lanka Foreign MinisterVijitha Herath took to social media to express his condolences.
“Shocked by the loss of venerable monks, including international members of the Sangha, in the tragic accident at Na Uyana Aranya Senasanaya,” Herath wrote on X. “Sri Lanka mourns with the Buddhist community worldwide. My condolences to all affected, and prayers for recovery of the injured.”
The monastery is located about 80 miles north-east of the capital, Colombo.
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