Riders left hanging upside down when roller coaster 'floods'

Thrillseekers at an English theme park have been left hanging upside down in pouring rain after a roller coaster "flooded".

Twenty-eight people were left dangling on the Galactica ride at Alton Towers when it broke down overnight, the BBC reports.

The riders were stuck near the peak of the ride's 20m drop for around 20 minutes.

At one point an Alton Towers worker scaled the ride to reassure the trapped visitors that everything was going to be okay.

"So just got stuck on Galactica for 30 minutes in mid air and upside down," one Twitter user wrote.

"So being stuck mid air in the pouring rain on Galactica for 30 minutes was not pleasant," another posted.

Photos of the incident shared on social media show the stricken riders dangling from the ride.

Alton Towers officials told visitors the ride had "flooded".

A spokeswoman said rain had obscured a sensor and the ride automatically stopped.

"This is a standard safety feature on this ride and the ride was working exactly as it is designed to do," she said.

The Galactica re-opened in March after being refurbished.

The incident comes less than a year after the 'Smiler' roller coaster crash, which left two women needing to have legs amputated.