UPDATED 4.50PM TUESDAY 27/8/2024

More than a dozen passengers left dangling in midair after an amusement ride on the Gold Coast became stuck on Tuesday afternoon have been safely rescued.

The Vortex ride at Sea World suddenly stopped about 3pm with 13 people on board.

Media images show the passengers dangling from the top of the 15-metre-high structure at the popular theme park in Main Beach.

In a post to X at 4.30pm, Queensland Ambulance said all had been rescued from the stalled ride.

“All patients have been rescued and assessed by paramedics from a ride on Seaworld Drive at 14.46pm in Main Beach. All patients have declined transport,” it said.

#Update – All patients have been rescued and assessed by paramedics from a ride on Seaworld Drive at 14.46pm in #MainBeach. All patients have declined transport.

— Queensland Ambulance (@QldAmbulance) August 27, 2024

Earlier, Sea World said it was speaking to the patrons and staff as it worked out how to safely extract the stranded riders.

“Earlier today, the Vortex at Sea World received a ride stoppage due to a sensor communication fault,” Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa said in the moments after the successful rescue.

“Our team were in constant communication with the 13 guests on-board who were safe at all times, and our on-site nurse provided welfare checks in an abundance of caution with them upon exiting the ride.

“Our engineering team manually lowered the ride to its home position where the guests exited in just over 90 minutes of the ride stoppage.”

Randhawa said the Queensland Fire Department was there to help get customers off the ride if required.

“Our team regularly train for these exercises and we have a strong working relationship with the QFES team,” he said.

“The safety and wellbeing of our guests is our highest priority and ride stoppages are proof rides systems and operators are doing as they are designed and trained to do to keep our guests safe.”

The Vortex is an underwater-themed ride that twists, turns and spins “like never before”, reaching a top speed of 30km/h, according to Sea World’s website.

It is in the new $50 million Atlantis Precinct, which opened in late 2022.

Tuesday’s incident follows a similar rescue last Thursday when about 20 riders were evacuated from the park’s Leviathan roller-coaster.

It ground to a halt about 2.30pm after a sensor activated. Riders were assisted off by park staff in that incident.