THREE teenagers were trapped in the lift of an Andover bowling alley for 30 minutes after they began "jumping up and down" inside.

Firefighters were called to Riverside Bowl, shortly after 11.30pm on Saturday 15 April, following reports of a group trapped inside a lift.

Two crews from nearby Andover Fire Station attended the Bridge Street venue and attempt to free the trio.

Using a master-key, firefighters managed to release the hydraulic brake and lower the group to safety.

The three teenagers were trapped for around 30 minutes, according to representatives from both the fire service and Riverside Bowl.

Lift engineers visited the site on Tuesday to check for faults.

However Kevin Paterson, chief executive of Valley Leisure, who run Riverside Bowl, says the company found "no faults".

Instead the engineer suggested the likely cause was "people jumping up and down inside".

Mr Paterson said: "The incident was reported at 22.34pm by our staff to the fire service.

"Our staff remained outside the lift throughout to reassure the customers.

"The fire service were great and responded very quickly. The entire incident took approximately 30 minutes to resolve.

"The lift was kept out of service until the lift engineers could attend – because of the bank holiday they were only able to attend early on the Tuesday morning to rectify things for us.

"The lift engineers could find no faults, however, they advised that the likely cause was people jumping up and down in the lift whilst it was in operation and this caused the emergency brake to trigger.

"The lift is now back in operation."