The carriages had to be winched up the railway track by hand

Fire and ambulance crews were called to Babbacombe Beach Cliff Railway at about 1620 BST on Saturday.

It took two hours for firefighters to free the passengers - trapped halfway down the railway's 240-foot drop.

The emergency services were unable to re-start the train and were forced to winch it up by hand.

One man suffered an injury to his eye and was taken to Torbay Hospital for a check-up.

Two other people were treated at the scene - one had suffered a panic attack.

The passengers were stuck in the carriages for two hours

The passengers included a number of elderly people and children.

One elderly woman, on holiday in the area, said: "It was an unexpected experience and not one I want to repeat.

"I didn't really want to sit for two hours in a railway carriage stuck halfway up a cliff."

Divisional fire officer Graham Jackson said it had been an unusual operation.

"There was some sort of mechanical fault which resulted in both carriages on the railway getting stuck halfway down the cliff with people inside them.

The carriage is stuck half-way down the cliff

"It was not possible to get the people out safely from the position the carriages were in and it was not possible to restart the power.

"As a result, we had to winch the carriages up and down by hand."

The railway is to remain closed until investigations have been carried out into what caused the winch system to fail.

Babbacombe Cliff Railway started operating in 1926.

The railway was closed during World War II for security reasons.

It was refurbished and reopened in 1951. In 1993, �60,000 was spent replacing the track.

The railway, powered by electricity, carries more than 250,000 passengers a year.