4 dead in Queensland theme park ride malfunction
AUSTRALIA - Four people were killed at a theme park in Queensland, Australia, yesterday when one of the park’s rides malfunctioned, police said.
Two men and two women were pronounced dead by police following an incident on the Thunder River Rapids Ride at the Dreamworld theme park on the state’s Gold Coast. Police confirmed to reporters that two females, aged 42 and 38, and two males, 35 and 32, had died. Inspector Tod Reid of the Queensland Police told reporters that “investigations are continuing and we’ve had the forensic pathologists attend the scene and examine the deceased in situ.”
Reid said police were attempting to contact the families of the victims. “We have specialist police here engaged with witnesses, and that those people are being offered support, along with also the responding police are being offered appropriate support as well,” he said. A “crime scene has been established,” Reid said. Police were called to the site at Coomera after reports that “a number of people had been injured by a conveyor belt.”
The ride had malfunctioned, pinning people underneath, Gavin Fuller, acting senior operations supervisor for Queensland Ambulance Service, said at a press conference. “One of the rides had sustained some sort of malfunction, causing two people to be ejected from a ride, another two people were caught inside the ride,” Fuller said. Fuller said the victims had sustained injuries that were not survivable, adding that “a number” of staff from the ambulance service had been “deeply affected by this terrible incident.”
(CNN.COM)