China: 3-year-old girl killed as bouncy castle blown into the sky

A three-year-old girl has died in a horrific accident in China when a freak gust of wind lifts a bouncy castle she was playing inside, causing her to plunge to her death.

The accident, which was captured on CCTV, took place on 4 June outside a shopping mall in Tianyang, Guangxi Autonomous Region. In the video, the girl is seen playing in the castle when the wind begins to lift it. An adult attempts to hold the castle down but it is ripped from her grasp.

The little girl is carried into the air by the sudden violent gust but then falls. She died in hospital about 40 minutes later.

"The child was in a coma when she came in for emergency treatment," Tianyang County hospital's director of emergency treatment told Chinese TV. "We immediately began emergency treatment, cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, and asked surgeons for a consultation. About 40 minutes later, however, the child died."

Tianyang police haven't commented on the investigation but state media reports that the supermarket illegally installed the castle using wire and stones to secure it to the ground. Local work safety administration officials have declared the inflatable castle an unlicensed business, according to the Xinhua news agency.

In 2006 two women - Elizabeth Collings, 68 and Claire Furmedge, 38 - died in County Durham when an inflatable maze called Dreamspace blew away from its moorings and is lifted above ground. About 30 others were trapped inside the maze, some suffering serious injuries.

The artist responsible for the installation, Maurice Agis, who witnessed the tragedy, was later fined £10,000 for breaching health and safety regulations.

There have been a number of other fatalities involving giant inflatables, including that of eight-year-old Amy Byrne from the Republic of Ireland in 2011.

In May 2014 two American boys were seriously injured when a bouncy castle they were playing in was lifted into the air in a similar incident in South Glens Falls, New York.