Giant balloon injures two at New York parade

A giant balloon at a Thanksgiving parade in New York snagged a street light in Times Square and caused part of it to fall into the crowd, injuring a woman and a child, according to police and eyewitness accounts.

The accident happened today near the end of the parade when the balloon’s tethers became entangled on the head of the street lamp, causing a collision that knocked it off.

The 26-year-old woman and 11-year-old girl were apparently hurt by the debris. They were in stable condition at the Bellevue Hospital, said hospital administrator Peter Schectman. The nature of their injuries was not immediately known.

“It happened so fast,” said parade spectator Karim Simmons, of Queens, New York.

“I said: ‘Oh my God!’ It dropped like a rock.”

The accident involved a balloon, filled with helium, but shaped like a hot-air balloon, advertising M&Ms sweets.

A reporter from a radio station on the scene of the accident said the injured child was from Albany, New York.

The accident occurred at West 43rd Street and Seventh Avenue.

The circumstances were an echo of a 1997 mishap, when two people were seriously injured when 45 mph winds forced a Cat in the Hat balloon into a metal pole on Central Park West.

Officials then set guidelines that would limit the use of balloons if wind threatened to be too strong.

Parade organisers were given the go-ahead to use the balloons this year, but ordered them tethered on shorter lines because of some moderate breezes at the parade’s start.

It was not immediately clear if wind played a factor in the accident.