A young girl has died and eight other children were injured after a strong wind picked up a bouncy castle at a fair in eastern Spain.
The accident took place Tuesday night at the fairgrounds in Mislata, a city on the outskirts of Valencia.
Nearby fairgoers watched in horror as the structure was lifted up into the air and several children fell to the ground.
“All of a sudden I saw it rise into the air,” one witness told the Guardian. “I saw the kids that were in the air, I think they fell onto another inflatable structure. There was a young girl on the floor, unconscious.”
Video posted by the Provincial Firefighters Consortium of Valencia shows firefighters checking under the deflated structure to make sure no more children were trapped.
Immediately following the incident, nine children were rushed to La Fe University and Polytechnic Hospital in Valencia. An eight-year-old girl died about 12 hours after she arrived, reports ABC News. Another four-year-old girl remains hospitalized.
The town hall of Mislata said it was holding a minute of silence to honour the victim of the accident. It also announced it would cancel all remaining holiday celebrations, including Wednesday’s Three Kings parade.
The mayor of Mislata, Carlos Fernandez Bielsa, tweeted his condolences.
“There are no words of comfort, a real drama. A very sad day for Mislata. All the support and encouragement to the families,” he wrote.
The tragedy comes less than a month after several children were killed in a similar incident in Australia. The school-age kids had been celebrating the final day of school when a gust of wind lifted a bouncy castle 10 metres into the air.
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