Four stargazers were rescued from a jammed observatory in Thailand.

The astronomy enthusiasts were excited to use the 14-inch telescopes on top of the building and view Saturn at its closest point to Earth this year when the lift suddenly stopped working at the Regional Observatory for the Public in Chachoengsao province on August 27 around 7 pm.

The tourists - two men and two women - were left trapped as oxygen started to thin inside the cramped box until rescuers arrived about an hour later to save them.

Footage shows emergency responders inspecting the lift for spaces to enter through without success. The exhausted stargazers talked to the rescuers behind transparent glass as they had difficulty breathing until the team later decided to smash through it.

An officer from the Phanom Sarakham Rescue Unit said: ‘The elevator was stuck between the second and third floors. We got all four of them safely.'

The volunteers used a 10ft-long ladder to reach them from the outside and broke through the glass with an iron bar.

Medics checked those who were trapped for injuries, but all of them were unhurt and assisted home.

The skywatching activity was organised by the Thai National Astronomical Research Institute, which had a turnout of 20 attendees before the lift malfunctioned.

The ringed gas giant reached opposition, a phenomenon when a planet is opposite from the sun with Earth in the middle. Around the same time, Saturn also reached perigee, its closest approach to Earth.