16 left trapped on Alton Towers ride

TERRIFIED children as young as 12 had to be rescued from a rollercoaster at Alton Towers yesterday after it broke down mid-ride.

The Oblivion attraction came to a ‘clunking halt’ 180ft above the ground – the ride’s highest point – after a technical fault was picked up by a sensor.

The ride is in the same theme park as the Smiler rollercoaster, where 14 riders were injured and two teenage girls each lost a leg in June 2015. Yesterday, staff were seen scaling the Oblivion ride and strapping harnesses onto 16 passengers before escorting them down.

Alex Heasman-Bailey, 16, who saw the incident, told MailOnline: ‘The passengers were looking around and they were very anxious to step off the ride and onto the stairs because it’s quite a high fall.’

He said riders were there ‘for quite a while’ and he could see ‘ people in helmets with ropes’ who were attempting to release them from their seats.

Jack Hughes, 18, said that the carriage became ‘completely stuck at the top’.

The ride, which opened in 1998, features speeds of up to 68mph as well as a huge vertical drop.

A spokesman for the park said: ‘This afternoon Oblivion stopped after a sensor on the ride detected a minor technical fault. At no point was guest safety compromised.’