11-year old girl scalped after her hair got caught in a carnival ride.

An emotional mother has revealed that her 11-year-old daughter may never see again after her hair got entangled in a spinning ride at a fair and scalped her.

Elizabeth “Lulu” Gilreath, 11, was celebrating her town’s Cinco de Mayo festival in Nebraska in the US at a carnival.

Elizabeth "Lulu" Gilreath, 11. Her hair was her pride and joy. Via Facebook.

She was on a spinning ride, the 'King's Crown' when her long hair got caught in a moving mechanism.

According to Elizabeth's father, Timothy Gilreath, she was pulled back and forth for a long time before anyone intervened.

"It went on for 5-10 minutes everybody told me while it ripped and pulled my daughter around," Gilreath said in an interview with WOWT. "She was tortured."

The young girl had gone to the carnival with her cousins and a friend when she went on the “King’s Crown” ride.

A friend told of the moment she realised Lulu was being injured.

“There's nothing we could do and so I stood up and I was like yelling, I was like, 'Stop the ride! Stop the freaking ride!" said Aushanay Allen.

"I was like yelling, I was like, 'Stop the ride! Stop the freaking ride!" said Aushanay Allen. Via ABC NEWS.

The ride was finally stopped by a passerby who noticed what had occurred.

Jolene Cisneros ran over to physically stop the ride. "It was still spinning. I had to stop it with my hands and turn it to the point where it was to the platform," she told WOWT.

Elizabeth lay bleeding on the ride’s floor. According to Ms Cisneros she looked at her and said, “Where’s my pretty hair?”

Surveillance video shows the ride’s operator running from the scene, though some say it’s possible he may have been going to get help.

Since the accident, Elizabeth’s mother has shared photos of her daughter on Facebook and asked for prayers.

“Lulu is such a amazing and outgoing little girl,” her mother, Virginia Cooksey, wrote Sunday night on Facebook. “She has to make it threw (sic) this; she want to be a senator when she grows up. She loves to read and learn. She loves her family dearly.”

In a press conference overnight the family said that Lulu may not regain her sight.

Her father, Timothy Gilreath said, "they don't even know if the muscles will work and my daughter will be able to see again.”

Elizabeth's mother told Good Morning America, "I wouldn't recommend any parent to put their child on a carnival ride."

Her mother wrote on Facebook “I want the man who is responsible for being so stupid and neglecting my daughter to be punish for this crime and i want to know everyone who was involved in saving my daughters life to know how thankful her family and i are.”

Her family have started a fundraising page here.