One person has died and nine were injured after a roller coaster derailed at an amusement park in Stockholm, Sweden, the park and police said. “One person is sadly dead,” Cecilia Björling, spokeswoman for Gröna Lund, the official name of the park that was evacuated, told AFP.
Nine people were injured and hospitalized, including children, Gröna Lund CEO Jan Eriksson said at a news conference. “It’s a sad day,” he said, noting that the park, which opened 140 years ago, will remain closed for at least seven days. The accident happened around 11:30 am (09:30 GMT) on Sunday on the “Jetline” carousel. Part of the front end partially came off, the train stopped in the middle of the track and the carriage in question leaned over the edge. There were 14 people on board the carousel. An investigation has been launched, a park spokeswoman said.
“We received the warning around 11:39 (09:39 GMT), a roller coaster derailed and several people were injured,” Håkan Eriksson of the Swedish capital’s ambulance service told AFP. Police and ambulances were dispatched to the scene of the accident. The injured suffered injuries from falls, said Stockholm Police spokeswoman Helena Bostrom Thomas.
According to Jenny Lagerstedt, a correspondent for Swedish television SVT, who was at the scene, a Jetline attraction car broke loose and then fell from a very great height, taking several people with it. “Suddenly I heard a thud and a metallic noise, then the rides started to shake,” she told the Swedish broadcaster. “My husband, who was sitting outside, saw a car detach (from the attraction) and fall off.” “It’s unimaginable,” Culture Minister Parisa Liljestrand told TT news agency. “I recently visited the park with my family and I can’t even imagine what it must be like when the best day suddenly turns into a nightmare.”
The roller coaster “Jetline”, a classic at Gröna Lund amusement park, which employs around 1,500 seasonal workers every year, was inaugurated in 1988 and runs at a speed of around 90 km/h.