20 people stranded 148ft in the air for 8 hours after US amusement park ride gets stuck

More than 20 people were left stranded 148ft in the air for eight hours, after a ride became stuck at a US amusement park.

The Sky Cabin ride at Knott's Berry Farm in southern California, which carries passengers upward in a rotating room providing panoramic views of Orange County, came to a standstill halfway up the tower on Friday (30 December) at 2pm.

After the Knott's Berry Farm team attempted unsuccessfully to restart the ride, emergency services were called to the scene at 5pm. After attempts to bring the viewing platform back down to the ground also failed, passengers, were then safely winched down, one-by-one, harnessed to firefighters by rope during a rescue operation.

All of the passengers, including several children, were safely lowered to the ground by 9.45pm Knott's Berry Farm said in a tweet.

According to Sky News, the park's officials issued a statement confirming that the passengers were safely rescued, as they insisted that their rides are "inspected, check-listed and properly maintained daily".

"After the Knott's Berry Farm maintenance team made several attempts to bring the attraction down, we contacted the Orange County Fire Authority," the statement read. "As always, the safety of our guests and employees is our number one priority."

During the operation, Orange County Fire Authority Captain Larry Kurtz told ABC7: "We have firefighters in the cab with the occupants.

"No one is in any medical distress, so we're going to affix a harness on to each one of them and one at a time we're going to lower them down to the ground."

Captain Kurtz added: "It sounds scary but these guys, they train for this all time. We have very, very strong ropes that have 9,000lbs of breaking strength on them."

The Sky Cabin will be closed while an investigation into the cause of the incident is conducted.