Children feared ride was 'on fire', say parents

Children had to climb off a ride at a theme park after fearing it had caught fire, parents said.

An eyewitness said there was a smell of burning while children were riding the Egg-Spress family rollercoaster at Pleasurewood Hills, near Lowestoft, Suffolk, on Saturday.

Wayne Lennox, who had two children on the ride, said they were "traumatised" after a tunnel the Egg-Spress had stopped in started to fill with smoke.

In a statement to the East Anglian Daily Times (EADT), Pleasurewood Hills confirmed people had climbed off the ride but said there had not been a fire. The BBC has contacted the theme park for comment, but it has yet to provide any details of the nature of the incident.

Suffolk Fire Service said it had not been called to the attraction.

A parent, who did not want to be named, said the ride stopped at the peak of a tunnelled incline section - but its wheels kept spinning.

"It started creating sparks and smoke and my daughter said she could see sparks from the motor behind and a flame come at the front.

"Everyone was screaming for help, I could hear so much screaming," she said.

Lennox said his two children had come "running out from the tunnel screaming 'the rollercoaster is on fire'".

He said he had run to the ride where he had seen one young boy who he encouraged to get off the track just before the rollercoaster "shot back down the hill" without warning.

He said adults screamed there were "still children in the tunnel" and parents made a chain to help bring five or six down from the peak of the track.

"It could have been so, so horrendous," he said.

"For children on a rollercoaster, and there's smoke filling up [the tunnel], they are going to think it's on fire, they are going to try to get out.

"They are young children on their own and a few adults," Lennox added.

A parent said smaller children had got out of their seats and onto mesh at the side of the ride and others had been "half hanging out".

The ride had "jolted backwards" while people were trying to climb out of it.

No announcement had been made to the people stuck when the ride stopped, the parent said.

"At the time I felt there was no empathy for the children or any of the adults. A lot of the children were hysterical and the adults were emotional," she added.

A spokesman for Pleasurewood Hills told the EADT that the main priority of staff had been to speak to the people who were affected.

In September, Pleasurewood Hills won the title for attractions with under one million visitors at the UK Theme Park Awards.

In August, firefighters rescued 27 people who were stuck on the Wipeout rollercoaster.

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