A FAMILY-OF-FIVE and three elderly passengers were amongst a group of passengers left stranded in a cliff-side lift - after workers shut it down and went home.

The hapless passengers were stuck halfway up Scarborough's South Cliff early on Wednesday evening after lift operators closed the system for the day.

Firefighters released the occupants from the carriage in an hour-long operation after contacting a member of staff who helped restart the 285ft (87m) lift.

A spokeswoman for North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service said: ''We received a call at 5.46pm on Wednesday reporting that eight people were stuck in a lift halfway up the side of a cliff.

''Crews liaised with staff from the Spa complex to enable the lift to move to the top of the cliff.''

The spokeswoman said one of the passengers, a 78-year-old man from a local care home, was left ''shaken'' by the incident and was walked back to his home by firefighters.

It is believed the carriages are turned off and left halfway up the tracks at the end of each day.

Today, Brian Bennett, Scarborough Borough Council's head of tourism and culture, said: ''At this stage, we are able to confirm that this unfortunate incident was the result of a staff error and not a technical problem with the operation of the lift.

''We are continuing to investigate the matter fully and are reviewing all our operational procedures.

''We have all the contact details of the customers that were affected and our staff have been contacting them to offer our sincere apologies.''

David Gibson, 37, from Wishaw, near Glasgow, was trapped in the lift with his partner, Caroline Nelson, 35, his 15-year-old son David, and his two daughters Deni, nine, and eight-year-old Cody.

He said: ''It is just absolutely unbelievable that we were left literally hanging there. At first we thought the lift had broken down, but when we realised it was down to human error we just could not believe it.

''It was very frightening being stuck in there.''

The Spa Cliff Lift was the first funicular railway to open in Britain in July 1875.