Rollercoaster riders were left stuck at the top of a 72ft ride at the Adventure Island theme park in Essex.
Terrifying images of the incident were uploaded to social media and showed passengers - who were aboard the 'Rage' ride - stuck at a near 90-degree angle facing the sky on Friday afternoon.
Rage is advertised as Adventure Island’s 'biggest and best' rollercoaster – with 'loops, twists, and flat-out speeds'.
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Only people over 120cm can ride it.
Thankfully, riders were evacuated and safely returned to the ground within 40 minutes, the park said.
Witnesses say they were 'harnessed and rescued down' from the terrifying ride in Southend.
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A mum who was visiting the park with her six-year-old daughter told MailOnline: "It got stuck, it's the big one there that goes through the loop - it goes up, God knows high, and then straight back down and then loops.
"It literally just got stuck, right at the top.
"The carriages are still stuck at the top at the moment, but the people are out, they harnessed them out one at the time.
"They were up there for at least half an hour, 45 minutes probably.
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"It was all quite calm to be fair, the park seemed to handle it really, really well.
"They were reassuring them, there was no screaming or mass hysteria, though obviously there was a large crowd of people around and lots of people there.
"I've never been on the ride, I'm not about to now either."
Onlooker Gemma Fletcher added: "The riders didn’t seem distressed as there was no audible screaming and no flailing arms or anything. However when they evacuated the ride the first man they took off was clinging onto the lift and looked in a bad way.
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"By the reaction of the staff members, and the sound the ride made, this wasn’t anything they had rehearsed for.
"This was a serious, non predictable and non rehearsed, emergency."
Marc Miller, managing director of the Stockvale Group – which runs Adventure Island, said: “Just after 2pm today, a carriage on Rage stopped on the lift.
“Our highly trained team immediately initiated our ride evacuation plan, which has been certified by the Health and Safety Executives and Essex Fire and Rescue.
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“All passengers were returned to the ground, safe and sound and reunited with their families within 40 minutes.”
LADbible has contacted Adventure Island for additional comment.
Featured Image Credit: Facebook/Adventure Island/Your SouthendTopics: UK News, Theme Park