Alton Towers: Shrewsbury girl, 14, one of those stuck in the air on Galactica rollercoaster

Amelia Watkins was celebrating her 14th birthday at the theme park with friend Sophie Ashton

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Almost 30 people were stuck lying face down on the park's new ride, which uses virtual reality headsets, when it stopped at the theme park on Monday.

The riders were stranded at top of the highest drop of 20m (66ft) for 20 minutes.

Amelia's mother Debbie said she went to meet them at Galactica and watched as the ride was halted. She said: "I thought 'oh dear they're up there'. I could see all these people just hanging there."

Sophie said: "When we got to the top it all stopped. We took the glasses off and realised we were up in the air. It looked as if we were going to fall. We could see Nemesis going round underneath us.

"There were two people in front crying and some people were shouting for help. We were a bit worried.

"The people (Alton Towers staff) came up to say we would be safe and we would be getting down."

Mrs Watkins said: "They were shaken and wet because it was hammering it down with rain. Their hands were icy cold."

A spokeswoman for Alton Towers said heavy rain had obscured a sensor and the ride automatically stopped.

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

It comes less than a year after a crash on the theme park's Smiler rollercoaster left several people badly injured.

Galactica opened last month and is a £12 million upgrade from the previous attraction Air.