A school carnival in Western Sydney turned into a rescue operation when a fair ride malfunctioned, stranding over a dozen students four metres high.
Emergency services were called to Emmaus Catholic College at Kemps Creek, around 55km from central Sydney, shortly after midday Friday following reports children were stuck on a carnival ride.
The ride was operating as a part of the school's Emmaus Day celebrations when it became stuck in an elevated diagonal position, stranding 20 riders in mid-air.
“It doesn’t sound that much, but it's a big enough drop to hurt somebody seriously," said Fire and Rescue New South Wales duty commander Gary Nash told 9News.
Firefighters used an aerial ladder to bring those onboard down individually, pulling trapped riders over the attraction's safety rail.
Nash said all 20 riders trapped were bought down safely after a two-hour rescue ordeal, with no reports of injuries.
"As you can expect, a lot of them were quite afraid after being suspended in the air," Dylan Snape from NSW Ambulance told media.
The ride had since been quarantined and would be handed over to SafeWork for an investigation.
It's not the first time an incident of this kind has occurred in Australia in recent years.
In 2024, 13 people were rescued from the Vortex ride at Sea World on Queensland's Gold Coast after a "sensor communication fault".
The riders were suspended 15 metres above the ground for 90 minutes as engineers worked to bring the ride down.
Nobody was inured.
SHARE ME