A backpacker thought he was going to die after he was stuck in one of the world's highest cable cars - for three hours.

Haris Minhaj, 29, was with a group of tourists when they were stranded 3,000 metres above sea level for three hours - in what should have been a 15-minute ride.

He was travelling across south-east Asia and took a ride in a cable car on Mount Fansipan in Sapa, Vietnam.

The cable car ride reaches a height of 3,143 metres offering spectacular views of the Hoang Lien Son mountain range.

Haris, a civil engineer, from Perth, Australia, was only in the cable car for a few minutes before it got stuck in the foggy and cloudy heights of the mountain.

He documented his ordeal, which was later posted on TikTok.

Keeping a level head in the video, Haris confirmed he did panic when the cable car came to an abrupt halt.

He said: "I thought 'am I going to die here? Let’s stay positive and cheer everyone up!"

"I better start filming everything in case we die, so there is a good record of the event."

Over the course of the three hours, Haris tried to make friends and even cracked jokes - to one passenger's dismay - as they pleaded "no dark jokes right now!"

Eventually, the cable car started moving and made its way back down.

Haris added: "After a few hours of waiting, electrical engineers reinstated the power to the cable car with backup power and the descent down was 10 times slower than normal."

After exiting the cable car at the bottom, Haris said that he didn't get a refund, but "they offered us a cup of tea."

The incident happened in June.