SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian police on Friday said investigations were continuing into the deaths of five children after a jumping castle was lifted into the air from strong winds at a school end-of-year celebration, including if it was properly tied to the ground.
Three boys and one girl aged 12 years, and one girl aged 11, died in the accident which saw children fall 10 metres (33 feet) to the ground at a school in Devonport in the northwest of Tasmania state. Another three children remain in the hospital.
It was one of Australia’s deadliest accidents involving an amusement ride.
“The tragedy which occurred yesterday is beyond comprehension. It is devastating, heartbreaking. It is just simply incomprehensible,” Tasmania state Premier Peter Gutwein told reporters on Friday.
Some 40 students were taking part in the celebrations when strong winds reportedly caused the jumping castle and several inflatable zorb balls to lift into the air.
Police said they would probe how high the jumping castle was lifted, whether all the injured children were inside it and the direction of the wind gust.
($1 = 1.3933 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Renju Jose; Editing by Michael Perry)
