Magdeburg
Bouncy castle accident: Police are investigating the operator
In Magdeburg, a bouncy castle was blown into the Elbe. photo
© Christopher Kissmann/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
A total of nine people were injured on Sunday because a bouncy castle was caught in a gust of wind and partly blown into the Elbe. The police are now investigating the operator.
After the accident with a bouncy castle in Magdeburg Police started the investigation. The playground equipment was hit by a gust of wind on Sunday, causing several people to be slightly injured. The 60-year-old operator of the bouncy castle is now being investigated for negligent bodily harm, a police spokesman told the German Press Agency on Monday when asked.
The bouncy castle was set up at a housing association party. According to the police, parts of the castle had sunk into the banks of the Elbe. Six children were among the nine slightly injured people, four of whom were on the bouncy castle when it was hit. Two children fell into the Elbe.
Part of the investigation process is the question of whether the bouncy castle was properly secured, said the police spokesman. On Sunday, the police had already secured parts of the playground equipment. The event was canceled after the accident.
Accidents involving bouncy castles always cause a stir. An incident on the Australian island of Tasmania in 2021 ended particularly tragically. Six children died there after an inflatable bouncy castle was torn into the air by strong winds at a school festival. According to eyewitnesses, several children fell from a height of up to ten meters.
In Germany last May, 14 children were slightly injured when a bouncy castle in Lohmar near Cologne tipped over on its side during a spring festival. At a children’s soccer tournament in Gondershausen, Rhineland-Palatinate, in 2022, a bouncy castle was caught in the wind and pulled up several meters – nine children were injured, five of them seriously. In April 2018, a bouncy castle tipped over at a festival in Berlin-Hellersdorf – 13 children were injured.