FIREFIGHTERS have rescued 19 people including six children from a fairground ride on the Southbank in central London.
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Ten capsules on the ride became stranded in the air due to a technical problem and firefighters had to use aerial platforms to rescue them.
Some of those on board the ride were children, the London Fire Brigade said.
London Fire Brigade (LFB) used two cherry-picker-style aerial platforms to bring people down from their seats, while engineers worked to manually release the ride’s friction brake so it could be turned to align with the aerial ladder.
Two fire engines from Lambeth fire station and two aerial ladder platforms from Greenwich and Clapham fire stations were at the scene.
“It was slow work as we needed to access each cage on the ride individually”, he said.
“There are no injuries and everyone is patiently waiting for us to get around to them”.
The London Wonderground, where the ride is located, is situated next to Jubilee Gardens on the Southbank.
Ben Kind took to Twitter to congratulate London Fire Brigade for their work tonight.
London Wonderground tweeted: ‘This evening the Starflyer which shares our site experienced a technical fault.
“Everyone on the ride has been evacuated safely”.
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‘And the company who manage the ride for Southbank Centre are investigating the fault’.
