Theme park officials have had to take drastic measures to make improvements to a new rollercoaster ride after dummies were "alarmingly" damaged during a test.

Thorpe Park in Surrey said a number of the crash test dummies returned with scratches and limbs missing, forcing a costly operation to make changes to comply fully with health and safety requirements.

An emergency response team was called in to work on the ride, The Swarm, re-modelling a life-sized church and making other changes ahead of the park opening in March.

Mike Vallis, divisional director at Thorpe Park, said: "The ride-testing phase is absolutely crucial in ensuring extreme fun doesn't compromise safety, and we work with the very best teams in the world to ensure we reach the gold standard in safety, so if that means re-modelling a church it's taken us a year to build, then so be it.

"To lift the lid on what goes on behind the scenes of building a monster rollercoaster such as The Swarm is quite unprecedented, but we want people to understand the level of planning, precision and care that goes into creating their ultimate thrill-seeking experience."