The Smiler rollercoaster at Alton Towers has been closed following the falling of circular mechanical components from the ride.
Black ring-shaped objects were photographed resting on the netting which covers the ride’s queue line.
The objects fell from the ride’s vertical lift hill and some appear to have snapped.
The Gerstlauer-manufactured ride is the first of its Infinity-type models to use a two-train design – as opposed to the traditional single-train associated with its famous Euro-Fighter model – while retaining a vertical lift hill.
Alton Towers responded to a Twitter user query saying: “The Smiler has experienced technical issues which are looking into as we speak! Sorry for the inconvenience.”
Another tweet from the park said that the ride was “closed temporarily” but that they were “working extremely hard to re-open [it] as soon as possible.”
There is no indication of when the ride is likely to re-open, with Alton Towers’ operating season ending in eight days’ time.
It is the latest in a series of incidents affecting the running of rollercoaster, which opened in May this year.