Rescuers scramble to help people stuck at the top of 72ft-high rollercoaster after ride breaks down at Adventure Island Southend

Terrified riders were left hanging on the tracks of a 72 foot high rollercoaster for ‘at least half an hour’ today. 

Horrified onlookers watched as rescuers scrambled to the aid of eight people stuck ‘at the top’ of the Rage ride at Adventure Island in Southend, Essex, just before 2pm.

Footage shows one of the cars stuck dangling vertically from the track as the riders face the sky. 

One person, who’s  brother was stuck, said she was ‘so scared’ when she realised the ride had stopped. 

When asked how her brother was doing, she said: ‘Perfectly fine, surprisingly he was fearless about it.’

A mother who was visiting the park with her six year old daughter said: ‘They had to be harnessed and rescued down.

‘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 woman, who asked not to be named, added: ‘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.

‘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.’