A woman injured when a 180ft Christmas fairground ride crashed to the ground has spoken of the terrifying the moment it lurched backwards before dropping.

Louise Brown was on the City Starflyer swing chair ride in Birmingham city centre when it crashed.

Ms Brown, a mother who works at the BBC in the city, said: ‘This can never happen again – we are in shock and all I can think of is what if my kids were on the ride.’

Ms Brown suffered injuries to her face, legs and arms, adding that her colleague was also hurt. Pictures show her with cuts and bruises on her face.

‘We were on it having fun and then it just crashed to the ground,’ she said.

‘It felt like we were descending, not at the highest point but still quite high. We just dropped.

‘It went backwards first though, which I’ve never seen it do before.’

West Midlands Police said two men, aged 55 and 21, were last night arrested at the fairground on suspicion of perverting the course of justice and obstructing officers. They remain in custody. 

Police and emergency services rushed to the scene and sealed off an area around attraction in Centenary Square following the incident on Thursday evening.

Video footage shared on social media shows chaotic scenes as rescue teams sealed off the area around the popular ride. Pictures also appear to show several gondolas on the ride tangled up in the wires.

Shocked witnesses describe hearing people ‘screaming in terror’ as the ride slammed to the ground.

John Spence, 45, from Warwick, was at the fairground with his wife Julie, 42, and their ten-year-old son Harris.

He said: ‘We were near the ride when we heard screaming. It wasn’t your normal excited screams, this was screams of terror.

‘There was a loud whoosh and bang and then pandemonium. There were lots of people in hi-vis jackets running over to help people get off the ride.

‘Within a few minutes you could hear sirens. The emergency services were incredible and all so calm.

‘We stayed out the way because we didn’t want to make the situation worse but crowding around.’

Another witness said: ‘We saw some of the people getting helped off the ride and several had bloody faces and were crying.

‘It was really shocking.’

Clips of the terrifying aftermath saw eyewitnesses describing how the ride suddenly collapsed – saying in disbelief ‘it was all the way up there and it fell, the thing fell.’

One bystander could be heard saying how there was ‘blood on someone’s face, reports The Sun.

The fairground remains closed this afternoon. 

Locals today told MailOnline that the carnage last night had put them off attending. 

Val Breakwell, from Rednal, had come to the city centre with her friend to enjoy the festivities.

She said: ‘We weren’t here last night, but what a disaster. We saw it on Facebook, the poor injured people.

‘Somebody’s not tightened a nut somewhere, obviously…Something has gone catastrophically wrong with it.

‘No chance would I be on there, I wouldn’t even go on the Ferris wheel now.

‘I wouldn’t let anyone go on there, I wouldn’t want my family to go on it.’

Civil servant Ibrahim Hussein works in the city centre a few feet from the attraction site – but was off when the accident happened.

He said: ‘I heard about it but I had a day off, but we got told about it in a meeting.

‘I haven’t been on it, definitely not, I stopped going on rides about 20 years ago.

‘I know these are quite robust in their safety features but it was just an unexpected thing to happen. The last one I knew about was in Alton Towers.

‘For me there’s no fatalities, which is the main thing. And thank god it’s the festive season coming up.

‘I’ve been told that the whole thing just came down, didn’t it. It must have been shocking.

‘I’d imagine it’s going to put a lot of people off. But if they fix it and get it going, I’m sure people will say why not.

‘It shouldn’t happen again, hopefully they triple check it. I’ll leave it for the youngsters.’

Bill Tidman, from Stratford, was visiting the city with friends. He said: ‘They put it up overnight and then there’s all these rides all over the place. Everything is propped up on bits of wood. You’d think this would be more reliable as it’s more permanent.’

Joanne, 52, said she had seen the ride working from the top of the library during a work event in the weeks before.

She said: ‘I’ve seen it before and thought it looked a bit unsafe. It’s too high for me. We were on the balcony watching it go up a few days ago and it was way too high.

‘I did think how well strapped in are, are you going to end up somewhere after flying out.’

Stacey, 35, said she and her mother had visited the market and attractions today but didn’t have any intentions of going on the rides.

She said: ‘We come every year, we were coming today regardless of the accident or the weather.

‘We’re past rides now, we’re too old for that. I think that one is similar to one at Alton Towers.’

She added: ‘We were here yesterday for the afternoon but left before it got bad, it looked to be working fine then.

‘We didn’t know anything would happen to it, you don’t even think about it.’

A mother who was visiting the attractions with her two kids said the accident was horrible.

The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, said: ‘My heart goes out to the women, it really does.

‘To have that happen to you, or anyone, is horrible. They’ve got families who are worried about them too.

‘I don’t know what went off, but it’s horrible, just horrible.’

West Midlands Fire Service confirmed it had ‘dropped to the ground’ while it was in operation.

One witness told the BBC he saw ‘girls who appeared to be injured’ walking away from the area, with ‘one girl who seemed to have her face cut’.

A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokeswoman said: ‘On arrival, crews found 13 patients.

‘Two women, were treated by ambulance staff for injuries not believed to be serious and conveyed to Midland Metropolitan University Hospital.

‘Nine women and three men were assessed by medics before being given self-care advice and discharged at the scene.’

The City Starflyer ride is provided by funfair suppliers Danter Attractions and is described as ‘one of the tallest rides around’.

In a statement, the company told MailOnline: ‘Our thoughts are with the individuals and families affected. There is an ongoing investigation and we are fully co-operating with the authorities. At this time we are unable to provide any additional comment.’

Brian Hughes, chairman of Westside BID, the business improvement district for the area including Centenary Square, said in a statement: ‘Our first thoughts are with those who have been injured.

‘While we are relieved to have heard that no-one has received life-threatening injuries, this must have been a terrible incident to experience.

‘We have already spoken with the owners of Ice Skate Birmingham, which operates the ride, and we know that they will now be working closely with the authorities to find out exactly what went wrong.’

West Midlands Police has appealed for anyone with CCTV or mobile phone footage from the evening, to contact officers by call 101, quoting incident number 4290 of December 12.