Night-mayor on the Eye

It was meant to be a pleasant trip on one of the capital's most popular tourist attractions.

But instead it turned into a 90-minute ordeal when the London Eye broke down and left hundreds of people - including 10 London mayors - stranded in mid-air.

The mayor of Lambeth, Irene Kimm, had invited nine other mayors to join her on the Eye but minutes into last night's trip the 450ft structure came to a sudden halt and was plunged into darkness following a major computer glitch. It was not until 9pm that all the passengers had reached the ground after engineers slowly reversed the wheel.

Mrs Kimm said: "Everyone remained calm and I knew that we were in good hands." The mayor of Islington, Joan Coupland, added: "We kept our spirits up by singing." A London Eye spokeswoman said: "Unfortunately these things happen. There was never any danger to anyone and there are all sorts of fallbacks and fail-safe mechanisms."