In an extremely tragic incident, five children died after a bouncy castle lifted in the air in Hillcrest Primary School in Tasmania. Four other children are critically injured as well, after falling from 32 feet up in the sky. The activity was part of the end of the year celebrations at the school, where no one could have expected such a tragedy to take place.
Most of the children in the incident were 6th grade students, the average age being 10-12 years old. Among the five children that died, 2 were girls, 2 boys and the last one’s gender is still unknown. Tasmanian police Commissioner Darren Hine did a press conference after the bouncy castle incident where he said, “Our hearts are breaking for the families and loved ones, school mates and teachers of those children taken too soon. On a day where these children were meant to be celebrating their last day at primary school, instead we are all mourning their loss.”
Within minutes, emergency services along with helicopters were immediately dispatched to the incident location for aid and rescue. The school had a lot of different activities apart from the bouncy castle including a Water Play Zone and Zorb balls. Several inflatable “zorb” balls were also lifted in the air along with the jumping castle according to the police report.
“This is a very tragic event and our thoughts are with the families and the wider school community, and also our first responders. There is no doubt that this has been a very confronting and distressing scene. Counseling is being made available to the families affected by this in the school community along with the first responders,” said Police Commander Debbie Williams to reporters, after people were asked to avoid the area.
The news was understandably too shocking to process, which is why the Hillcrest Primary School closed early after the bouncy castle incident, asking parents to collect their children.
