The former John Hancock Center dominates the Chicago skyline on a 2006 photo.(Photo: Tim Boyle / Getty Images)

An elevator inside the old Hancock building in Chicago has lost 84 floors before retaining six people inside, local media outlets reported. The rescuers arrived shortly after the fall early Friday morning to drill a hole in the wall of the building and release those who were inside.

The accident took place in 875 North Michigan Avenue, formerly known as the John Hancock Center and the fourth tallest building in the city. the Chicago Tribune reported. The guests entered the elevator after leaving the building's Signature Room – a bar offering stunning views of the downtown from the 95th floor – before at least one cable holding the car would fall into breakdown.

A sudden "clack clack" sound was produced, passenger Jaime Montemayor, 50, told the Tribune before the dust infiltrated the car. The passengers shouted, prayed and cried, the newspaper reported.

"I thought we were going to die," said CBS Chicago Montemayor, visiting from Mexico.

Firefighters arrived at the scene to rescue. They finally located the car near the 11th floor and dug an opening in a concrete wall, the station reported. Those who were inside were pulled towards safety, leaving cables hanging next to the cracked door of the elevator.

The whole process took almost three hours.

"It was a pretty precarious situation in which we had broken cables over the elevator," Chicago Fire Chief Patrick Maloney told ABC 7 Chicago.

"We could not perform elevator lift rescue.We had to cross a wall on the 11th floor of the parking garage in order to open the elevator doors."

CBS Chicago did not save the trapped hospitalization, but visitors to the Friday tower used elevators to reach its summit.

The elevator down Friday was last inspected in July, the station said. One of the 22,000 elevators in the city is examined each year.

The cause of the fall of the elevator – a failing "lifting rope", said Monday at the Tribune a head of the city's buildings department, was the subject of an investigation on Monday , according to the newspaper.

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