Visitors rescued after ride at South Korea's Lotte World amusement park halts in mid-air for 3 hours

SEOUL (THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - An amusement ride at the Lotte World indoor theme park in Seoul stopped mid-air on Saturday (Aug 5), leaving 70 people panicked for nearly three hours.

The malfunctioned ride, called Fly Venture, has a giant screen 12m in height and 20m in width, offering a virtual experience of flying through the air. It is located on the third basement floor in the indoor amusement park.

According to Lotte World and the local fire department, some 70 people were left stranded in the air at around 7pm and were rescued by 10pm. The fire department was reportedly alerted to the situation at 8pm.

Among the panicked riders were nine children aged between eight and nine. Two Taiwanese were also affected.

​"The problem occurred as the operationist was manually stopping the ride following one of the riders' request to unboard," a Lotte World representative said.

"We will increase the frequency of safety checks on our rides and accordingly train our operationists to prevent any future occurrences of such problems."