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400-Foot Orlando Eye Ferris Wheel Stops; All 66 Riders Safely Taken Off

A fire official says firefighters have safely removed all 66 riders who were stranded aboard The Orlando Eye after the 400-foot Ferris wheel stopped moving for more than 45 minutes Friday.

Orange County Fire Rescue spokeswoman Kathleen Kennedy told The Associated Press power to the attraction was restored with a generator and that firefighters, some on ladders, got riders out of the enclosed capsules by manually opening the doors.

"All guests are safely evacuated," she told AP, minutes after the end of a more than three-hour effort to remove stranded riders.

She says no one was hurt and there was no immediate indication what caused the observation wheel to stop. Elite rescue climbers stood by, but didn't deploy.

The Orlando Eye released an official statement via Twitter, which read in part, "At approximately 3:45 p.m. the operating systems for the Orlando Eye indicated a technical default with the system that monitors the wheel position... As a safety precaution, the attraction is designed to automatically shut down if communication with this system is interrupted."

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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