Children left dangling after mishap on spinning ride at US fairground

Eight people, including six children, were hospitalised after safety restraints were released accidentally on a spinning ride at a fair in Tennessee.

Riders were enjoying "The Moonraker", a ride that spins around on an axis and tilts up and down on an angle, when the ride’s computer system detected a problem, NBC4 reported.

According to a spokesman for the fair, the ride operator panicked and pressed a manual override button, which caused the lap bars to release.

Parents said they watched in terror as children dangled, gripped onto rails, and some even reportedly falling from their seats.

“I really thought I was going to die, because the height, it was so high and I couldn’t hold on,” one rider said.

One of the six teens hospitalised, a 16-year-old girl from Memphis, is suffering from a broken wrist and a neck injury.

The Delta Fair acknowledged the accident “scared everybody” but said “none of the riders were injured”.

“As a precautionary measure we had the riders checked out by our onsite EMS services and then had the riders at their request sent to the Hospital for strictly precautionary reasons,” a statement said.

The ride operator, who was shaken by the incident, was taken to hospital to be assessed.

The ride, which received two inspections in the days before the accident, will be closed until at least tomorrow.

Last month, three girls were injured when they fell more than 30 feet from a Ferris wheel in Tennessee when the gondola they were riding in overturned.