Sign up to FREE email alerts from MyLondon - MyWestLondon News Subscribe Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Emergency services were called to Thorpe Park after a group of youths climbed one of Britain's tallest rollercoasters.

The youngsters broke into the Chertsey theme park, which plans to take legal action against them, and climbed 200ft to the peak of Stealth, a ride which takes its passengers from 0-80mph in 1.9 seconds.

Police and firefighters were alerted by the theme park after it had been closed for the night, the Croydon Advertiser reported.

Emergency services attended the scene at around 10.15pm on Sunday (April 16) after the group reached the top of the UK's second highest rollercoaster.

Video Loading Video Unavailable Click to play Tap to play The video will start in 8 Cancel Play now

A Surrey Fire and Rescue spokesman said: "A group of youths broke in and climbed to the top of the Stealth ride.

"By the time we got there they had rescued themselves.

"The youths broke in nearly five hours after the theme park had closed.

"I think they saw the better of it and climbed down as it is crazy going that high."

It is likely firefighters from Leatherhead fire station would have had problems rescuing the group if they had not climbed down of their own accord as, although a spokesman confirmed they have the tallest emergency ladder in the country, it only goes to 42 metres.

Firefighters remained at the scene for 45 minutes until 11pm at the theme park, which closed at 6pm throughout the Easter holidays.

A spokesperson for Merlin Entertainments, owner of Thorpe Park, said: "Thorpe Park takes trespass extremely seriously.

"It has a zero tolerance policy towards this behaviour which is irresponsible, foolish and potentially very dangerous for those individuals as well as others. As such we will be pursuing legal action against those involved.

"We can confirm that last night (Sunday, April 16) four youths broke in and attempted to climb one of the rides. They were spotted very quickly by our security team and the police were informed.

"One of the young men had difficulty descending from his position and Surrey Fire Service were called to help him down safely."

Swiss-built Stealth, which opened in 2006 at a cost of £12 million, has the fastest acceleration of any rollercoaster in Britain, going from 0 to 80mph in 1.9 seconds while riders may experience up to 4.5G.

Surrey Police declined to give any further information.

Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.

You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area.

Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!