STOCKHOLM – A roller coaster train derailed in Stockholm on Sunday, sending some passengers plunging to the ground in an amusement park accident that left one dead and nine injured, police and park officials said.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene at the Gröna Lund park as the front of the train appeared to jump off the tracks before coming to a stop, with one car tilted toward the ground.
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“The front of the train partly derailed and stopped on the track at a height of between 6 and 8 meters (between 20 and 25 feet),” park chief executive Jan Eriksson said. “A total of 14 people were on board, of which one person has died and several are injured.”
The regional government said nine people were taken to a hospital, one of them in serious condition. Three of the injured were children, all of them with minor injuries, it said.
Witness Ziba Assadi told Swedish broadcaster TV4 that she was standing just below the Jetline roller coaster when she saw the wheel assembly of one of the cars crashing to the ground.
“Then the car stops and people fly out, fall out of the car," she said.
Witnesses said two or three people fell out of the car, one of whom managed to cling to the track. Photos from the scene showed a man sitting on a beam below the stopped train.
“So he sits there straddling (the beam) and waits,” Assadi said. “There was complete panic.”
The amusement park was evacuated after the accident and will remain closed for seven days to allow investigators to find out what went wrong, park officials said.
“This should not be allowed to happen,” Gröna Lund spokeswoman Annika Troselius said. "Safety is the most important thing for us. And we would never open an attraction if we were not confident that it was safe, so this is something we need to investigate thoroughly.”
Police launched a criminal investigation on possible charges of involuntary manslaughter, causing bodily harm and causing danger to others.
The 800-meter (2,600-foot) long Jetline rollercoaster opened in 1988 and was renovated in 2000, according to Gröna Lund. It has a maximum height of 30 meters (98 feet) and a top speed of 90 kph (56 mph).
Opened in 1883, Gröna Lund is Sweden’s oldest amusement park.