Out of control lift kept going up then dropping several floors with 12 people inside

A group of people have spoken of their relief at being rescued from a lift that kept plunging down several floors at a time at a shopping centre.

Describing it as ‘something from a horror film’, they said it went up and down more than 25 times over a 40-minute period.

The people trapped inside were left screaming, panicking and sweating as the ordeal continued. They avoided injury by sitting on the floor, but one girl had a panic attack.

There were more than a dozen people in the lift at St David’s Shopping Centre, Cardiff, at the time.

Among them were four girls Taris Chapman, 19, Amy Hitchins, Wallis Owen and Olivia Oldham who had just been to TGI Fridays for dinner.

Rihanna is ‘super close’ to finishing her new album

Taris said: ‘Myself, three of my friends and nine other people were in the lift in St David’s shopping centre this evening when it stopped working.

‘This resulted in 40 minutes of the lift going to the top floor and just plunging us down seven floors with force, whilst jolting.

‘Not to mention, how frightening it was as we couldn’t get hold of the of the help line 10 minutes into the lift breaking.

‘When we did manage to get hold of them, the speaker kept cutting off and due to no signal we couldn’t even get through to the emergency services.

‘Around 20 minutes later, the fire service came and helped us get out. This was the most terrifying thing we have experienced and want to warn others as it was very distressing.’

She added: ‘It felt like there was no control over the lift. Everyone was screaming and panicking. It felt like the cord that holds the lift wasn’t working properly.’

Out of control lift kept going up then dropping several floors with 12 people inside

The girls said Olivia, who was already ‘petrified’ of lifts, was left having a panic attack and was crying and shaking throughout the ordeal.

They described how the lift hit the top floor, before jolting and dropping back to the bottom – but the doors would not open.

They said: ‘We were all crying and decided to sit on the floor in case it hit the bottom hard. It honestly felt like we were never going to get out.’

Taris and her friends also described the difficulties they faced in contacting emergency staff at the shopping centre.

She said: ‘We couldn’t get through and when we did we just couldn’t understand what was being said. It was boiling in there. Everyone was sat down, panicking and sweating. We had no drinks and it felt like there was no air in there.’

Megan Jones, 19, was also in the lift with her mum Alyson. Megan said: ‘Not being able to contact anyone whilst we were being thrown up and down with no way of stopping the lift was honestly the worst experience of my life.

‘If there was any more than the 13 of us in there, there would have been bigger issues! We went down to the first floor and then right up to the top.

‘It all happened so fast. We hit the top and came down with a judder. We must have gone up and down continuously around 25 to 30 times.

‘Everyone was screaming. It was the worst experience of my life.’

She said that there were around 13 of them in the lift which is designed to hold 26.

Steven Madeley, General Manager for St David’s said: ‘We can confirm there was a fault with a lift in the centre Saturday evening, and the Fire Service attended in line with our usual protocol.

‘We’d like to apologise to those affected and thank them for their patience. We will be liaising with those customers directly.

‘We would like to reassure that the incident was a fault, and there was no risk or danger to those involved.’