TWO teenagers limped away from a fairground ride when the wooden platform they were standing on gave way.

Joanna Scholes, 13, and Natalie Nelson, 16, had been visiting Rawtenstall funfair when the accident happened.

They were waiting for their turn on the Waltzer and were standing on a wooden platform which surrounds the ride.

Joanna, of Hawks Grove, Rawtenstall, said she fell through the wooden floor pulling her friend, of Schofield Road, Rawtenstall, with her.

They both crashed to the ground landing on their backs. Joanna trapped her foot and Natalie hurt her leg. Joanna said: "If they had not stopped the ride we could have been dragged underneath. The man who was operating it came up to us and said, 'Are you all right now?' He fastened the board back and then went away to start the ride again.

"He didn't ask us our names and he didn't check to see if we were hurt or not."

A spokeswoman for the Health and Safety Executive said it was investigating the incident and no comment was available from the fairground operators.

A council official, workers and police went to the site on Monday night after it was discovered several of the fairground rides, including a children's roundabout and helter skelter, were being powered by cables connected to a street light.

A spokesman for Rossendale Council said the cables were dangerously overloaded and a short circuit would have caused the cables to ignite like a firecracker and metal parts of the rides would have become live.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.