Seven-year-old tells of sculpture tragedy

A SEVEN-YEAR-OLD girl told yesterday how dozens of horrified onlookers tried to tear open a stricken inflatable sculpture with their bare hands and penknives after it crashed to the ground in a British country park.

Little Chloe Wilson, who witnessed the tragedy on Sunday, which claimed two lives, yesterday returned to Riverside Park in Chester-le-Street to lay a bunch of flowers at the spot where she saw an elderly victim dying.

The two women died after the Dreamscape visitor attraction was blown 30ft into the air before careering to the ground, injuring dozens as horrified families looked on. Television footage showed it breaking free of its moorings. Thirteen people were also injured in the accident.

Tearful Chloe, who was in the park with her aunt Catherine at the time of the accident, yesterday told how dozens of people tore at the inflatable sculpture as people inside screamed in terror.

Standing at the spot where an elderly woman, believed to be the 68-year-old victim, lay dying, she placed a small bunch of flowers under a tree.

She said: “I was in the park with my aunt when it started to go up in the air.

“I saw a lady clinging on and then falling out and she was lying on the ground with people around her.”