WARNING: Distressing images.

A LITTLE girl had her scalp ripped off when her hair got caught in a carnival ride which would not stop spinning.

Elizabeth Gilreath, 11, got her hair caught in a spinning ride called the King’s Crown at the Cinco de Mayo festival in Nebraska, USA, according to WOWT.

According to witnesses, the ride had just started when the girl’s red curls were caught in a mechanism, reportedThe Sun.

She screamed in horror, but the ride continued to spin round.

Elizabeth’s friend, Aushanay Allen, took the video of her pal before the horrifying ordeal and said: “There’s nothing we could do and so I stood up and I was like yelling, I was like, ‘Stop the ride. Stop the freaking ride’.”

Surveillance video of the park shows the rides conductor running off to get help, but another mum said the ride continued to spin round despite the girl’s screams.

Jolene Cisneros told WOWT: “It was still spinning. I had to stop it with my hands and turn it to the point where it was to the platform.

“I was like, ‘you’re going to be OK’ and she’s just like, ‘where’s my pretty hair?’”

She says Elizabeth was bleeding and then lost consciousness.

The horrified mum said she thought the little girl might die in front of her.

The girl suffered a fractured skull and is now in Nebraska medicine hospital, according to KETV.

It is unclear whether her parents were at the festival when it happened, but they immediately rushed to the hospital when she was brought there.

Her father Timothy Gilreath said: “I drove there to find my daughter’s scalp had been totally removed.

“I whispered to her, ‘Baby, you’re a Gilreath. You’re tough’.”

Her mother Virginia Cooksey told KETV: “I’ll ask her questions ... she’ll squeeze my hand in response to let me know she understands.”

Virginia posted photos of her daughter on Facebook, nicknamed Lulu, asking for prayers: “Lulu is such an amazing and outgoing little girl she has to make it through this, she wants to be a senator when she grows up.

“She loves to read and learn. She loves her family dearly. Please family and friends keep Lulu in your thoughts and prayers on this Mother’s Day.

“No mother should have to go through what I’m going through.”

She wanted the man who did not stop the ride to be punished, but it is unclear exactly what happened or whom she is referring to.

One of the mother’s Facebook friends said Elizabeth’s scalp had to be reattached.

Another eyewitness, Jessica Contreres, said: “It’s scary, because if you have little kids.

“I mean what’s the possibility of that happening to a kid that you know or a family member or something.”

The carnival company is investigating and the ride has since been shut down.

This story originally appeared on The Sun and was reproduced here with permission.