Chaos reigns at Easter egg hunt: 'It was like when Mufasa got killed in the Lion King'

There were chaotic scenes at an Easter egg hunt when a helicopter was used to drop thousands of eggs onto children in Columbus, Georgia.

On Saturday 15 April, the egg drop – sponsored by the Bridge Church in Columbus – was described as being like a scene from the Lion King, with hundreds of children and parents stampeding across a field to collect the eggs.

At the same time, the helicopter blew children off their feet and cased a dust storm.

"It was awful, I don't even know how to describe it," said Maria Phillips, an egg drop participant and mother of a two-year-old. "It was like when Mufasa got killed in the Lion King."

The event was advertised on Facebook to start at 11am, but didn't get underway until sometime between 1.30pm and 1.45pm by which point most of the children were tired and hot.

Amanda Walters brought her children, aged 4, 6, 9, 11 and 16, in hopes of making fun memories.

"I'm sure The Bridge just meant for this to be a really great thing to do for the city and it's just sad how the people of the city behaved," Walters said. "The adults just acting like a bunch of animals out there, it was like a stampede."

"Nobody controlled their children," Chelsea Gillens added. "My kids had to fight for eggs with kids three times their size. At one point, there was a grown woman on the floor, laying on the ground. It was madness and they're just little Easter eggs with candy in them."

And that was only the first drop. Children and parents were still on the field when a second round of eggs dropped onto their heads. Dust was flying, people were getting hit in the head and it was a scene of chaos, Gillens said.

The Ledger Enquirer tried to speak to a representative with Bridge Church, but they declined to comment.