Rameses Revenge riders at Chessington World of Adventures stranded for hours after it breaks down

- 40 people trapped on ride at Chessington World of Adventures- Fire crews had to cut through harnesses to release those on board- Chessington World of Adventures 'very sorry' for incident
Staff|Agency17 June 2013

Around 40 people have been rescued after becoming trapped on a theme park ride.

Emergency services were called to Chessington World of Adventures in Surrey shortly after 5pm yesterday - by which time those on board the Rameses Revenge ride had already spent an hour suspended 20ft (6m) in the air, witnesses said.

At its height, around 40 people were trapped on board the ride after a fault.

Justin Coo, of London Fire Brigade, told Sky News that children as young as eight were likely to have been on it but as there was a minimum height requirement of 1.4 metres, there were not thought to be any younger.

Many of those trapped were “agitated and stressed” he said.

One mother whose 13-year-old daughter was on board said the ride stopped at around 4pm when the electrics failed.

She told Sky News: “They have been sending up water and sun cream to them because it was rather hot initially.

“They are taking children down first. There are some kids on there with learning difficulties that are being brought down.”

The woman added: “It is very concerning because they were stuck and all the electrics failed.

“They were on the ride for 90 minutes before the fire and rescue service came out to them.”

Fire crews had to cut through harnesses to release those on board.

The theme park tonight confirmed there were no injuries and apologised to those caught up in the rescue operation.

In a statement, Chessington said: “At 4.06pm the Rameses Revenge at Chessington World of Adventures Resort in Surrey experienced a technical problem. This resulted in the automatic fail-safe system bringing the ride to a controlled stop. Experienced resort staff were on site immediately to assist with guest care.

“No guests were injured in the incident. A small number of people were on the ride at the time and the resort’s engineers worked with the emergency services implementing well-rehearsed procedures to ensure their comfort and safe removal from the ride.

“We are very sorry for any discomfort our guests experienced during the delay.”

A spokesman confirmed the attraction would be open today (Mon).

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in