Photo: Simon Moran/Getty

NORTH STAINLEY, ENGLAND - MAY 30: Paramedics attend to a boy who fell from a roller coaster at Lightwater Valley theme park on May 30, 2019 in North Stainley, England. The boy was reported as seriously injured and airlifted to a nearby hospital. (Photo by Simon Moran/Getty Images)

Thursday morning, witnesses at Lightwater Valley Theme Park in North Yorkshire said they heard screams before seeing the “boy hanging backwards outside of the actual carriage,”Sky Newsreported.

“He obviously got himself out of his restraint somehow,” witness Mark Charnley told the outlet. “Two seconds after that, he actually fell out of the carriage to the floor, maybe around 12-15 feet he fell.”

Charnley said that’s when everyone in line for the ride — called the Twister — began shouting and pleading with the operator to shut down the ride “as he hadn’t noticed what had gone on.”

“Two guys dove over the actual barriers to get to the lad who was on the floor,” Charnley told Sky News.

A second witness named Lara-Susan James toldBBC News, “We could hear a girl screaming, and I mean screaming.”

Lightwater Valley Theme Park.Simon Moran/Getty

NORTH STAINLEY, ENGLAND - MAY 30: An air ambulance arrives to attend to a boy who fell from a roller coaster at Lightwater Valley theme park on May 30, 2019 in North Stainley, England. The boy was reported as seriously injured and airlifted to a nearby hospital. (Photo by Simon Moran/Getty Images)

“I thought she was just scared of being on the ride, but she was hysterical. They were part of a bigger party of people visiting the park, and they were on the ground just ahead of us,” James said.

“I saw the operator apply the emergency stop and my husband pointed to the fallen kid on the ground saying they had fallen out,” James told BBC News.

At around 11:30 a.m. local time, North Yorkshire police arrived on the scene on reports of a “medical incident.”

Lightwater Valley has since released a statementconfirming the incidenton their website.

“We can confirm that following an incident on one of our rides this morning, a child is receiving treatment at a local hospital,” they wrote.

“Emergency services have confirmed the child was conscious when they arrived at the scene and his condition is not believed to be life-threatening,” Lightwater Valley added.

NORTH STAINLEY, ENGLAND - MAY 30: An air ambulance airlifts a boy who fell from a roller coaster at Lightwater Valley theme park on May 30, 2019 in North Stainley, England. The boy was reported as seriously injured and airlifted to a nearby hospital. (Photo by Simon Moran/Getty Images)

NORTH STAINLEY, ENGLAND - MAY 30: An air ambulance arrives to attend to a boy who fell from a roller coaster at Lightwater Valley theme park on May 30, 2019 in North Stainley, England. The boy was reported as seriously injured and airlifted to a nearby hospital. (Photo by Simon Moran/Getty Images)

The horrifying incident comes 18 years after a 20-year-old woman named Gemma Savage was killed after two cars collided on the Twister in June 2001,according toThe Telegraph.

In response to the boy’s fall, Gemma’s mother Linda Savage toldThe Telegraph, “Lessons clearly have not been learnt. The ride was not fit for purpose 18 years ago and it is still causing problems.”

source: people.com