Trapped Weymouth tower experience 'horrendous'

A man who got trapped up a 53m-high (174ft) viewing tower for more than seven hours along with 13 other people has described his ordeal.

Peter Hyre was one of the group, which included an 11-week-old baby, who had to be rescued by helicopter from the Jurassic Skyline in Weymouth, Dorset.

They were stuck in the attraction's capsule at 37m (121ft) after it broke down as it descended on Tuesday.

Mr Hyre said: "I'm claustrophobic, it's been horrendous."

An investigation is under way to discover what caused the breakdown of the tower, whose operator has apologised.

Mr Hyre, from Essex, who was winched off the tower with his partner by coastguard helicopter, said: "The wind was up it was whistling about - it shakes you up a bit."

Visitors were winched off the tower by coastguard helicopter

Fire crews abseiled to the stranded passengers in the capsule

The rescue operation began after fire crews were called at about 16:15 BST and ascended the tower.

A staff member was also winched to safety.

The coastguard helicopter was then called in at about 19:30, when other rescue options were ruled out because of bad weather.

The tower's operator, Poole-based Merlin Entertainments, said it suffered a mechanical failure - which also resulted in the brakes seizing, leaving the manual back-up system used to lower and raise the tower inoperable.

A spokesman said: "We obviously offer our apologies."