Almost 40 people, the majority of them children, were stranded in the air for up three hours after a ride at Chessington World of Adventures suffered a mechanical failure.
They were dramatically cut free from their harnesses by firefighters from the London Fire Brigade this afternoon.
Fire crews were called to the Leatherhead Road theme park at 5.20pm and used ladders and specialist cutting equipment to rescue 39 people from the Rameses Revenge attraction. No-one was hurt.
Station Manager Justin Coo, who was at the scene, said: "Firefighters assisted the trapped people down from the ride, which was around 12 feet above a walkway. We cut people out of their restraints, before walking them down the ride and helping them down a ladder to ground level. No injuries have been reported though a few people were understandably a bit uncomfortable as they were stuck for some time. Firefighters did very well to get people down as quickly and safely as possible."
It is understood staff at the park had tried in vain to fix the mechanical failure themselves before calling on the fire service, and sent food and water to those trapped.
Two-thirds of the people on the ride were children, as young as eight. All were rescued by shortly after 7.30pm this evening.
