The party turned tragic. A 7-year-old boy and his 24-year-old sister were killed in a dramatic ‘shooting incident’ during The fireworks of July 14 Thursday in Cholet (Maine-et-Loire), which also injured seven.
The investigation, opened for manslaughter, will have to determine the precise circumstances of the accident, which occurred shortly after 11 p.m. “on stabilized ground near the Cholet stadium”, said the public prosecutor of Angers, Éric Bouillard, joined by AFP on the night of Thursday to Friday.
The brother and sister attended the fireworks with other members of their family from Maine-et-Loire. The little boy would have died on the spot, the young girl would have succumbed to a heart attack, according to a police source.
Six other spectators, including the parents of the two victims in a state of shock, were slightly injured. They were hospitalized in relative emergency, according to the departmental fire and rescue service (Sdis) of Maine-et-Loire. A man in his thirties, seriously injured, was hospitalized in an absolute emergency, firefighters said Friday morning.
Asked about the circumstances of the accident, the prosecutor mentioned a “shooting incident”, without further details. “It is far too early” to say more, he added. According to our information, the first elements of the investigation highlight at this stage a malfunction within one of the blocks of fireworks which would have caused this box to explode and instantly leave part of the rockets. They were at a distance of about fifty meters from the crowd.
” An explosion “
Laurent Picard, who came to the fireworks with his two daughters aged 8 and 13, witnessed the accident, of which he posted some video images on Facebook. “I was 5/6 meters from the explosion with my two daughters, I received sparks and felt the heat of the blast,” he testified to AFP. “Fortunately, where I was placed I served as a shield for my daughters in a way”.
At the end of this video of a little over a minute, we see what looks like the explosion of a rocket among a small crowd massed behind a fence, then shouts and people running in all directions, while flames are visible on the ground. “Is it a rocket that went askew or exploded on the way down? It happened so fast, I couldn’t say,” he added.
Shortly after the explosion, Mr. Picard said he saw a man lying on the ground, apparently burned, and a woman who was being given cardiac massage by rescuers. “It was screaming everywhere, it was a bit of a panic,” he recalls, still shocked. “I took the girls to safety. It could have been us! I am deeply impacted and touched by these two deaths and the serious injury”.
“A terrible tragedy”
Despite the incident, the fireworks were completed and the crowd dispersed, he said. About 70 firefighters were dispatched to the scene, according to the western mail. The mayor of Cholet Gilles Bourdouleix, explained that members of the security would have “advised people” near the scene of the accident “to move away”.
The municipality has been working “for years” with the pyrotechnician in charge of the fireworks, he added, and “this is the first time” that such a tragedy has occurred during the July 14 festivities in Cholet according to him. “It’s a terrible tragedy,” he commented, joined by AFP. The investigation was entrusted to the Maine-et-Loire Departmental Security and the Cholet police station.