Dragon roller coaster at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park suspended after glitch

An iconic attraction at Hong Kong’s Ocean Park has been suspended from operation indefinitely after a glitch was found on Saturday afternoon.

The theme park said its safety system detected an abnormality of the driving mechanism in the Dragon roller coaster at 3.49pm.

According to a spokeswoman, the roller coaster stopped just before it reached the ending platform of the ride. On-site staff helped to evacuate 25 riders from the area in under an hour.

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The incident occurred as the city sweltered under a record-breaking heatwave with a 10-day streak of temperatures reaching at least 33 degrees Celsius. It is the longest run of hot weather in the city for the month of May.

The park said in a statement that riders, who were seated in open-top cars of the outdoor attraction, did not report any discomfort or illness.

A spokeswoman said the ride was suspended until further notice as visitor safety was the number one priority.

“Every roller coaster has many sensors and they can be activated when there are strong winds beyond the normal range,” she said, giving examples of possible reasons for the malfunction.

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The government’s Electrical and Mechanical Services Department was notified of the incident.

Retired engineer Lo Kok-keung said some other possible reasons for such suspensions included signalling errors of the control system or problems with parts, but added that more information was necessary to determine the cause of the glitch.

By Sunday the ride had resumed operation.

The roller coaster also encountered issues in June last year but no riders were seriously affected.