Over a Dozen Injured in Horrifying Carnival Ride Accident

By Michael Hein

A broken carnival ride left at least 15 people injured on Sunday night in Mohali – a city in Punjab, India. According to a report by Indian Express, the ride was a vertical tower with a large circular platform where riders were meant to sit and hold on as it both spun and went up and down. Eyewitnesses said that people began falling from the ride shortly after it started.

Witnesses said that they saw as many as 15 people fall from the ride, and that most of them were women and children. City officials said that their reports showed only four injuries, but that an investigation was ongoing. They said: "A carnival was being organised and the eyewitness told us that there was a technical snag in the swing and it had fallen."

A woman who said she was present for the incident told a different story. She said: "We saw people falling from the swing when it went up. There were children and women sitting in it." She added that bystanders helped rush the injured people to nearby hospitals.

The carnival organizers themselves allegedly fled the scene shortly after the ride failed. The Mohali Trade Fair was reportedly scheduled to continue on those fair grounds through Sept. 11. However, now local officials say it is not clear whether the organizers had the proper permits to operate on those grounds in the first place.

Mohali is a relatively new city, built according to a singular civic plan in 1975. It is officially called Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, and is populated by many workers in the information technology industry. It is considered a strong regional hub for that industry and it has several growing infrastructure projects to reflect that.

The investigation into this carnival tragedy is ongoing. Authorities have not commented on the reports of a larger injury toll.

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