Eleven-Year-Old Girl Dies After Falling From Ride At Drayton Manor

An 11-year-old girl has died after falling from the Splash Canyon ride at Drayton Manor theme park this afternoon.

Emergency services were called to the park in Tamworth, Staffordshire at 14:18 on Tuesday after reports had come in that she had fallen into the water.

A police statement had previously stated that the girl was visiting the attraction as part of a school trip.

Superintendent Carl Ratcliffe, of Staffordshire Police, said: "Specially trained officers are supporting the girl's family at this difficult time. Our thoughts are very much with her family and friends following this tragic incident."

West Midlands Ambulance Service stated that the girl suffered 'serious injuries' before being pulled from the water by staff members. She was later airlifted to Birmingham Children's Hospital but sadly passed away shortly after.

Social media has since come out to offer support for the family of the schoolgirl.

The girl was riding on the Splash Canyon which, according to the Drayton Manor website, prepares theme park goers to 'swerve around corners, splash through waves, and get soaked as your boat is swept along our fast-flowing rapids'.

Details of how the girl left the ride to fall in the water are unclear, but earlier The Health And Safety Executive tweeted: "HSE has been made aware of today's incident at Drayton Manor and making initial inquiries along with the emergency services."

Immediately after the incident, the ride was closed and no further entries to the park were permitted.

The ride opened in 1993 and has a maximum capacity of 126 (21 boats of six people).

West Midlands Ambulance released a statement shortly after it received the call to the Staffordshire theme park, which read: "An ambulance, a senior paramedic officer, a paramedic area support officer, a rapid response paramedic, a community first responder and the Midlands Air Ambulance from Staffordshire were sent to the scene.

"The first resource was on scene within seven minutes."

Source: The Mirror and BBC

Featured Image Credit: Drayton Manor/ Twitter

Stewart Perrie

Stewart Perrie is a Trending Journalist at LADbible. His first job was as a newsreader and journalist at the award winning Sydney radio station, Macquarie Radio. He was solely responsible for the content broadcast on multiple stations across Australia when the MH17, Germanwings and AirAsia disasters unfolded. Stewart has covered the conflict in Syria for LADbible, interviewing a doctor on the front line, and has contributed to the hugely successful UOKM8 campaign.

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