BOSTON -- Ten people had to be rescued from a stuck elevator in New Bedford on Thursday night.

A group of people piled into an elevator on the second floor of the New Bedford City Hall at about 7:30 p.m. Thursday, and they weren't able to get out for two hours.

On the way down to the first floor, the elevator's emergency brakes engaged because the car exceeded its weight capacity of approximately 1,700 pounds, the New Bedford Standard Times reported.

The car stopped between the two floors, and three passengers were able to climb out using a ladder. The other seven riders waited to be rescued.

"Some people just don't want to listen to the elevator operator," John Perry, superintendent of facilities, maintenance and construction for the city Department of Public Facilities, told the paper. "We will be kicking people off from now on."

The elevator, a custom-designed Otis built in 1912, is the oldest continually operating elevator in the United States, the paper reported.