Boris left hanging but continues to fly flag for London

London Mayor Boris Johnson was left hanging yesterday as he got stuck in mid-air on a zip wire at an Olympic event.

Mr Johnson tried out the 45m high, 320m long line as he visited Victoria Park in the capital.

Wearing a hard hat and waving two Union Jack flags, things seemed to go swimmingly at first.

But as he reached the end of the line, it rebounded before running out of momentum about 10m above the ground.

The mayor was left dangling inelegantly from his harness for about five minutes above a crowd of onlookers who happily snapped photographs on their mobile phone.

One shouted: “I heard Ken Livingstone [Mr Johnson’s recent mayoral election rival] set up the zipline.”

Mr Johnson responded: “This is great fun, but it needs to go faster.”

He spent his time cheering on Team GB athletes and encouraging tourists to visit London. He shouted to helpers: “Get me a rope or a ladder.”

Eventually event staff pulled him to safety.

British prime minister David Cameron said: “If any other politician was stuck on a zip wire it would be a disaster. For Boris, it’s a triumph.”

Mr Johnson defended his decision to invite News Corporation chief Rupert Murdoch to join him at today’s swimming finals: “There’s a sort of demonisation of Rupert Murdoch who, as far as I understand it, is not a proscribed character, he’s not a convicted criminal,” he said.

“We’ve just won the Tour de France thanks to Team Sky and it’s very important that he keeps that sponsorship up and he continues to support it.”