In a shocking day in Tasmanian, five primary school children have died, while four others remain in critical condition, after a horrifying incident involving a jumping castle.
Students at Hillcrest Primary School in Devonport were celebrating the end of the school with a “Big Day In”, when a freak gust of wind apparently blew the jumping castle into the air.
Several grade 5 and 6 students fell from a height of about 10 metres, causing serious injuries, when wind blew the jumping castle into the air at Hillcrest Primary School in Devonport, in the state’s north-west.
Five children are in hospital, four of them critically injured.
“These children were meant to be celebrating their last day of primary school, instead we’re all mourning their loss,” Tasmania Police Commissioner Darren Hine said this afternoon.
“Emergency services were called to the scene around 10am this morning after a wind gust had reportedly caused the jumping castle and inflatable zorb balls to lift into the air,” Commissioner Hine said.
“Of the four [deceased] children, two were boys and two were girls.
As photos show, even police were shaken by the incident.
Tim Bullard, secretary of the Tasmanian Education Department, said his immediate priority was to support the children, families and staff who were impacted by the incident.
“We’re coordinating a range of services as a critical response to support students, families and staff, and our approach is being guided by our senior psychologists, who are trained in trauma-informed practice,” Mr Bullard said.
“We have a team of professional support staff onsite to immediately provide support to students and staff, and this includes our psychologists, social workers and chaplains.
Tasmania being the small place it is, almost everyone at our end of the state will know someone affected by the tragedy.
Tasmania’s Premier Peter Gutwein was at a COVID-19 press conference in Hobart just after the incident.
“My thoughts are obviously with the people involved but obviously the parents of the children that have been injured and with the emergency services,” Mr Gutwein said […]
Prime Minister Scott Morrison described the incident as “unthinkably heartbreaking”.
“Events that have occurred today in Devonport in Tasmania are just shattering,” he said.
“Young children on a fun day out together with their families and it turns to such horrific tragedy — at this time of year — it just breaks your heart.”
Mr Morrison said he had also spoken to Mr Gutwein about the tragedy.
The Prime Minster was scheduled to travel to Tasmania on Friday, but has postponed his visit in light of the tragedy “out of respect to the children, parents, teachers and broader community who are today mourning the loss of young lives”.
ABC Australia
Small comfort as it might be, a GoFundMe campaign to be donated to the school’s Parents and Friends Committee to be distributed to the families affected, set up by local Zoe Smith, has already raised close to $40,000.
The deaths of children are always tragic, but coming on the eve of Christmas and at a school celebration only compounds the tragedy.
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