Outraged families claimed they paid hundreds of pounds only to be left queuing for up to three hours in blazing heat at Chessington World of Adventures (CWOA), with some rides reportedly closed before they could get on.

Disappointed parents said queue times on the theme park’s app yesterday had not been updated, meaning they waited more than three times longer than expected to get on rides.

Others said the 25-degree heat left people fainting near rides and that staff were “overwhelmed” with complaints.

One mother even claimed the queue to complain at the CWOA customer services was as long as for the rollercoasters.

@CWOA my 10 year old #daughter is still crying this morning about the fact she only got 1 ride yesterday and her favourites were #closed ! — Mairi (@CASEeducation) June 7, 2016

Darren Jumnoodoo, 44, visited the park with his two children Zachary, 9, and Freya, 6.

He said: “We got on one ride and we spent almost six hours in the park.

"We were told the queue for Scorpion was 30 minutes, we waited 90.

@CWOA awful day so far. Took almost 3hrs to get here, been here for 6 hrs and been on 3 rides. #notgoodenough — Ruth Andrew (@Ruthless1984) June 6, 2016

“When we got to the Vampire ride the app said the queue was 40 minutes long, which I thought was acceptable but two-and-a-half hours later we were still in it.

“A girl in front of us fainted because of the heat and it took the first aider about five or 10 minutes to get to her. She hit her throat on the fence really hard. Luckily she wasn’t too badly hurt.

“They then closed the Vampire ride. It was an absolute shambles.”

Mr Jumnoodoo, who had driven 90 minutes from Maidstone to get to Chessington, said the queuing did not stop when he went to complain.

He said: “I had to queue for another 45 minutes to get into customer services.

"We were lucky because we had some vouchers so we paid £80 for the tickets but some of the people I was talking to had paid more than £200 for four tickets.”

Maria Greaves visited CWOA yesterday with her two young sons.

She said: “The customer service has been lacklustre all day, with no information, communication, terrible queues, broken drinks machines and no customer care. Staff themselves admitted they were overrun.

“There was no point in complaining on site - the queue for that was as long as the ride queues - and we took the decision that we would rather just make the most of the time with our kids rather than waiting to moan to people who evidently didn't care.”

I'm having a #poorexperience at @CWOA. People now leaving queues after 2 hours!!!! Vampire says 60 mins actual time 120-150 mins — Darren J (@jumdar) June 6, 2016

A spokeswoman for CWOA said: “We regularly update our queue times across all mediums, including our mobile app. We had a couple of technical difficulties with rides on June 6, which may have temporarily impacted queue times and app accuracy, for which we apologise.

“We always look to protect our guests from hot weather so the majority of our queue lines are shaded from the sun and we recommend that guests stay hydrated if visiting us in hot weather conditions.

"Our restaurants will provide free tap water when asked.”