Six children were injured when an inflatable structure at the Emmerhout shopping centre fell over on Wednesday afternoon. One child was seriously injured.
Translation by Traci White
UPDATE: 12:00 p.m., Friday, 13 July
Dagblad van het Noorden reports that the Mini Summersplash festival did not have a permit to set up the inflatable bounce houses in Emmen. Anita Klingenberg, a spokesperson for the municipality of Emmen, says that the festival organisers should have had a permit and that the municipality would be questioning the organisers about the oversight. A spokesperson for the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) says that there may be a criminal investigation into the incident.
Original story follows below:
Five children were transported to the hospital, and one child was treated at the site and did not require further medical attention. One child, who was thought to be around six years old, was seriously injured after striking his head in the fall.
According to Dagblad van het Noorden, the police reported that several children were playing inside the inflatable structure when it fell over. It is not yet clear how old the children are, nor is it clear why the structure fell over.
Witnesses reported that there were several inflatable play areas set up outside of the shopping centre, and one of them fell over around 2:30 in the afternoon. There were 10 to 20 children playing inside the structure, which was seven meters tall, when it toppled over.
Photo source: Angelslo police Twitter
