SPANISH SLIDE SHUTS OVER SAFETY SLIPS

A38m-long, steep slide linking two streets in a Spanish town has been closed due to multiple injuries, less than 24 hours after it opened.

The slide, which connects two streets in the Costa del Sol town of Estepona, was opened last Thursday. It was intended to give people a quicker way to travel between the Avenida Reina Sofia and Calle Eslovaquia, which are on different levels, and so avoid a 10-minute walk. The council also built a walkway down the steep verge for the less adventurous.

The slide, however, has a gradient of between 32 and 34 degrees and some users took to social media shortly after its opening

to complain about safety.

“The Estepona slide is a piece of s***,” one woman wrote on Twitter. “I went on it and got hurt all over. I flew 2m and the police started to laugh.”

She posted pictures of her grazed elbows, adding: “I’m not putting up one of my arse, which is worse.”

Another video posted on social media showed a user hurtling down and flying off the end.

On Friday, the council closed the slide and said it had ordered the company that had built it to carry out a thorough check.

But it also said that injuries had been isolated and suggested they had come from people not properly obeying the instructions.

“More than 1,000 people used the slide correctly [on Thursday] without incident. Nevertheless, given the situation, the council has requested a new check,” it said.

A sign posted on the slide tells users to ride sitting up rather than lying down, to keep their arms in and not to use it at the same time as other people.