Alton Towers amusement park will remain closed today as an investigation continues into an accident on a rollercoaster that left four people with serious injuries.

Some passengers were trapped 25ft in the air for four-and-a-half hours after two carriages on the 50mph Smiler ride crashed on a low section of the track.

Two men aged 27 and 18 and two women aged 19 and 17 suffered serious leg injuries in Tuesday's accident and were airlifted to major trauma centres.

Twelve other people on the ride, six men and six women, required medical treatment, including a man in his 20s who suffered neck and abdominal injuries.

Nick Varney, chief executive of Merlin Entertainments, which runs the park, told Sky News: "It goes without saying that I and the whole team here are totally devastated and a little bit shell-shocked by what’s happened here today."

(Sky News)