VISITORS to a Hampshire theme park had to be evacuated from one of the rides this morning after it broke down.

About 20 passengers on a roller coaster at Paultons Park, near Ower, were marooned high above the ground after the carriages stopped at the top of the ride.

Staff rescued the visitors by putting them in safety harnesses and walking them down the ride one by one.

Paultons Park said at 3.30pm that the ride was swiftly repaired after a "minor technical fault" and is now up and running.

A visitor at the park, who asked not to be named, said the operation to get them to safety took about half-an-hour.

He added: “The carriages went to the top of the ride as normal but there was a hissing sound and the brakes locked on.

“Staff went up there to reassure the passengers, then started bringing them down after issuing them with safety harnesses that were attached to the guiderail.

“Most people stayed calm. I was near them when they came down and they were fine about it.

“I was watching it at the time – suddenly it just stopped and wasn’t  moving at all.

“They put it down to a technical issue but people were shouting down, saying they wanted to get off.

“There were two boys aged about 15-16 at the front saying ‘I want to get down’.”

Rob Griffiths, marketing manager at Paultons Park, said: “We can confirm that we had to carry out a well-practised manual evacuation of the Velociraptor ride.

"Our first priority was to ensure all riders were safely removed from the ride and we are now looking into the cause."

The ride is located in the Lost Kingdom section of the park, a £9 million attraction that opened last week on Tuesday May 17.

The Lost Kingdom was the biggest investment in a new attraction ever made by bosses at Paultons Park, coming in at £3 million more than Peppa Pig World.