A five-year-old boy has died after a wind gust blew a bouncy castle into the air while children were inside it at a baseball stadium.
Emergency services were called to the Regency Furniture Stadium in Waldorf, in the US state of Maryland, on Friday after the bounce house was lifted ‘approximately 15 to 20 feet up in the air’.
Some children inside of the inflatable – which was set up to entertain kids during the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs’s games – fell to the ground of the baseball field before it could land.
Two children were then flown to Children’s National Hospital in Washington DC by Maryland State Police.
A 5-year-old boy from La Plata was pronounced dead later that evening.
The second child was left with non-life-threatening injuries.
Witnesses told Sky’s partner network NBC News that the bouncy castle had been secured by stakes hammered into the ground.
A press release from the local government area of Charles County said emergency services who were already at the stadium for the game, along with trainers from the baseball team and several volunteers, began caring for patients within minutes after the bouncy castle took off.
Local government commissioner president Reuben Collins added: “We extend our deepest empathy to the children and their families during this difficult time.
“We thank our EMS team and the Maryland State Police for their swift actions to ensure the children received immediate care.”