A furious Bingley mother today spoke of her disgust after her disabled daughter was left helpless in a Bradford cinema while the building was evacuated.

Pamela Topliss was left upset and angry after being stranded for 20 minutes with her wheelchair-bound daughter, Charlotte, at the top of a set of emergency exit stairs at Cineworld in the city centre.

They were then told they could return to watch the rest of the film because it had been a false alarm

But the full-time carer today said her daughter's confidence had been shattered by the episode.

"It has taken three years to build Charlotte up to go out, and to be crushed down in this way is extremely distressing," said Mrs Topliss, pictured with Charlotte.

She had taken the 14-year-old, who suffers from the relatively unknown Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy Disorder, to the cinema complex to watch Pirates of the Caribbean as a Bank Holiday treat.

The incurable disorder involves hyper-sensitivity of the sensory nerve which causes pain and immobility. Charlotte contracted the condition after a fall when she was eight and now takes tablets every day and doses of morphine on bad days.

An hour into watching the blockbuster in Cinema Five, the audience was told to evacuate the building because a fire alarm had sounded.

After being led through an emergency door Mrs Topliss, of Priestthorpe Lane, Bingley, found she couldn't get Charlotte down the steep stairs and was told by a member of staff to wait where they were.

"The assistant said we had to wait for the fire brigade and that she would tell her manager about it," said the 38-year-old. "We just stood there for about 20 minutes. Three ladies who were kind enough to wait with us kept going to check what was going on but they couldn't get any help. By this time Charlotte was starting to shake and was in real pain.

"Then the manager came in with two security guards and said we could go back into the cinema. I said to him it was disgusting we'd been left standing there for 20 minutes.

"When we got back in the cinema other audience members were disgusted by it all. They just could not believe how we'd been dealt with and how we'd been left.

"We watched the rest of the film but Charlotte was in great pain. As soon as she gets stressed out she's in agony."

A Cineworld spokesman said: "All cinemas with stairs have safe waiting areas where disabled people can wait away from the main building and beyond the fire safety doors until the reason for the alarm is isolated and resolved.

"In the case of a full evacuation, staff will help as many people as possible to exit the building. As in any multi-storey situation, staff are not expected to carry disabled people out as this could create more danger than the fire risk itself.

"After all able and willing customers have left the building, staff must then leave the premises and the fire brigade will attend to rescue those in the safe waiting areas.

"The fire brigade knows where these areas are located and an intercom is in place at the point which, when pressed, gives additional notice to the box office area that someone is there.

"Last Monday's evacuation was a false alarm and the manager allowed it to go into full evacuation when he was unable to determine why the alarm went off.

"The show was resumed once the fire brigade gave approval."

A West Yorkshire Fire Service spokesman said the building would have built-in safe areas which conformed with the relevant planning legislation.