THRILL-SEEKERS got more than they bargained for when lightening struck at a North Yorkshire theme park on the eve of a record-breaking run.

Twenty passengers had just set off on the Kumali rollercoaster at Flamingo Land, near Malton, when the park was hit by a power cut during a ferocious thunderstorm shortly after 11.30am on Friday.

The drenched passengers were trapped on the ride for about 45 minutes while a diesel generator was used to move the rollercoaster very slowly round the circuit and back to the platform.

One young girl had to be carried off the ride by a Flamingo Land worker.

Wendy Homewood, a spokeswoman for Flamingo Land, which attracted nearly 1.5 million visitors last year, said: “Everybody on the ride was fine. We gave them somewhere to get warm and dry and they were all given a free meal.

“What happened is that there was a lightening strike and the power outed. We have procedures in place for when this happens.

“We used a diesel generator to lift the ride up to the top of the incline and then once it got to the top, its own momentum took it back down.”

The drama unfolded on the final day of test-runs for the park’s new £4 million Mumbo Jumbo ride, which opened to the public at the weekend and will enter the record books as the world’s steepest rollercoaster.

It features the most extreme drop in rollercoaster history – plunging passengers down an incline of 112 degrees from a high point of 30 metres and putting them through the same sort of pressure as that felt by fast-jet pilots.

Officials from the Guinness Book of Records visited the park on Saturday for an official record-breaking run at 2.30pm.

“This is a fantastic achievement for Flamingo Land,” said chief executive Gordon Gibb, 33, whose family have owned and run the park for 32 years.

“We are extremely proud of our new ride. It’s a world beater and it definitely puts us in the theme park premier league.

“There’s nothing like it anywhere in the UK or Europe. In fact, you’d have to travel to Indiana Beach in the USA to come anywhere close – and even then, our ’coaster is steeper by one degree.”

Pickering student Harry Atkinson, 20, had a chance to try out the ride during one of the test runs.

“It’s definitely steep,” he said. “You almost go upside down as you go down it and I was feeling quite wobbly after going round it three times.”