Five Kids Die In Australia’ Jump Castle Tragedy
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
(Worthy News) – Five children have died, and three others are in a critical condition after strong winds picked up the inflatable jumping castle they were playing on in Australia’s island state of Tasmania, authorities say.
Australian police said a gust of wind lifted the temporary structure into the air and that “several children” then fell to the ground from a height of about 10 meters (32 feet).
The accident happened at the Hillcrest Primary School in Tasmania’s small port city of Devonport while hosting end-of-year celebrations.
Police said Thursday that another child among the grade 5 and 6 students had died in hospital after the tragedy, taking the death toll to five.
“These children were meant to be celebrating their last day of primary school. Instead, we’re all mourning their loss,” added Tasmania Police Commissioner Darren Hine. Among those killed were at least two boys and two girls, authorities said.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the incident as “unthinkably heartbreaking.” “Events that have occurred today in Devonport in Tasmania are just shattering,” he stressed.
SAFETY CONCERNS
The accident further raised questions about the safety of relatively large inflatable structures for children, such as bouncy castles.
Worldwide there have been several fatal bouncy castle incidents.
In 2019, two children were reportedly killed and 20 others injured in a similar accident in China. A year earlier, a girl died in Britain after being thrown from a bouncy castle that eyewitnesses said exploded on a Norfolk beach.
And two fairground workers were jailed for manslaughter by gross negligence after a bouncy castle blew away with seven-year-old Summer Grant inside Essex, England, in March 2016.
Back in Tasmania, one parent told a local newspaper that the school had previously installed such floats on similar occasions with no problems.
“You wouldn’t dream a fun activity day would end like this,” the woman told the Hobart Mercury. “We all feel so heartbroken for the parents involved. And feel guilty that we are also relieved our children were not injured.”
A coroner’s investigation was underway, police said.
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