Emirates Air Line Thames cable car breaks down

Passengers were left suspended in the air when a cable car linking two Olympic venues either side of the Thames broke down.

The Emirates Air Line, which links the O2 Arena in Greenwich and the ExCel exhibition centre, experienced a technical fault at 11:45 BST.

All passengers were back in the terminal half an hour later and the service was running again by 12:40.

The crossing can carry up to 2,500 people per hour in each direction.

Some passengers tweeted about the ordeal. Alastair Owens, said he was in the air for about 50 minutes in total.

He wrote on his Twitter account: "Emirates cable car turned out to be great school holiday mini adventure - greeted with apologies and water as we landed."

Janet Hutchinson, and her 12-year-old daughter, Freya, from Surrey, were stuck in one of the cable cars.

"We were dangling over the Thames for half an hour, whilst swaying from side-to-side," she said.

"We were extremely hot and worried as we were not given any information. It was a very unsettling experience when it should have been an exciting trip out.

"When we got off we asked for a refund but was told because we paid by Oyster card we would have to approach Transport for London. I did not find the staff at the Thames cable car very helpful."

Danny Price, head of Emirates Air Line, said: "All passengers were safely back in the terminal by 12:18 and water and first aid were made available to them. We would like to apologise to anyone affected."

London Assembly Member John Biggs said: "We need the mayor and TfL to look into what went wrong and confirm that passengers weren't in danger at any point.

"The public need to be confident that this kind of thing won't happen again."

The Dubai-based airline Emirates is sponsoring the cable car for 10 years at a cost of £36m.