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01st Jul 2018

Young girl dies after being thrown from bouncy castle

An inflatable at Gorleston beach exploded and threw a child 20ft in the air, witnesses say

Oli Dugmore

An inflatable at a beach in Norwich exploded and threw a child 20ft in the air, witnesses say.

Norfolk Police confirmed a young girl has died after being thrown from a bouncy castle in Gorleston.

One witness tweeted that the castle had “exploded” and the child was thrown into the air.

She was taken to local James Paget hospital but later died.

One eyewitness, Sarah Allard, told Sky News: “A lot of people hadn’t known what had happened. It was desperately horrible and sad.”

She also said that lifeguards had performed CPR for 15 minutes at the beach.

Norfolk Constabulary said they were called to Gorleston at around 11.15am on Sunday 1 July.

“A joint investigation between the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), local authority and police has been launched to establish the circumstances surrounding the incident,” the police said in a statement.

“A police cordon has been put in place at the scene whilst enquiries continue.”

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