MONTREAL (AFP) - Dozens of cable cars at a Canadian tourist hotspot crashed into a forested hillside after a vandal attack severed overhead wires, police and operators said.

Thirty cabins fell to the ground when the 2km haul rope at the Squamish Sea-to-Sky Gondola was cut before dawn on Saturday (Aug 10).

"We believe that the cable has been cut and this is a deliberate act of vandalism," Royal Canadian Mounted Police inspector Kara Triance told reporters on Saturday.

A major tourist attraction, the route can carry up to 240 people at a time and offers views of fjords on Canada's Pacific Coast.

The facility will be closed for the foreseeable future, operators said on Saturday.

Police said no one was injured and asked for information from nearby hikers and campers who may have witnessed the incident.