A TEENAGE girl with Down's Syndrome fell from a Ferris wheel after an attendant refused to let her ride alongside her mother, an inquest heard yesterday.

Salma Saleem, 15, suffered fatal head injuries after plunging 30ft from the top of the ride at Gulliver's World in Warrington, Cheshire, in July 2002.

Cheshire Coroner's Court heard that Salma, who was large for her age and weighed 12st 4lb, wanted to ride in the same gondola as her mother but was told to ride alone, with her mother in the next gondola.

Her elder sister Rabia, who rode on the wheel a few minutes before, told the inquest that her mother had tried to protest but was ignored.

She said: "When Salma was going to get on the gondola my mum was going to sit with her, the attendant said 'No, she has to sit on her own'.

"My mum doesn't know much English so she said 'Salma handicap' but they completely ignored her. Salma sat in the gondola and they put my mum in the next one."

She added that Salma, from Nelson, Lancashire, initially seemed anxious at being separated from her mother but soon settled down and appeared happy.

It was not clear how she fell from the ride, but eyewitness Dr Stephen Cox said he noticed her in a "semi-standing position" just before she fell. The jury inquest also heard evidence from a woman who rode the Ferris wheel eight months before the accident, and reported the safety bar unlocking during the ride.

Lorraine Robinson, from Chorley, Lancashire, was in a gondola with her five-year-old daughter when the bar unlocked and went into its upright position.

She told the inquest: "The gondola was swaying backwards and forwards and I put my left arm across my daughter's chest to hold her in.

"I don't have learning difficulties, like the young lady we are talking about today, but I can honestly say it was the most frightening situation I have ever found myself in."

Mrs Robinson added that, when she reported the fault to the ride attendant, he said: "That's always happening."

Another witness told the inquest that she became stuck in the ride when the safety bar refused to open.

She told the inquest that the ride attendant had struggled to fix the problem before saying "the lock's buggered".

The inquest also heard evidence from Anthony Nicholas, who worked as an operative on the Ferris wheel in 2002, although not on the day of Salma's death.

He said new staff were trained to operate some rides in the 15- or 20-minute period before the park opened.

The inquest at Runcorn Town Hall is expected to last for three days.