Two killed as inflatable sculpture takes off

LONDON - Two women died and 13 people were injured when they fell from a huge inflatable artwork after it broke its moorings and flew into the air in north-east England, police said yesterday.

Up to 30 people were inside the walk-in exhibit when a gust of wind blew it 9m above a park in the northeast town of Chester-le-Street, County Durham.

"(The) inflatable exhibition broke its moorings and tipped those using it on to the ground," a police spokesman said in a statement.

The victims, aged 68 and 38, had been walking through the artwork with children when it took off. A three-year-old girl was seriously injured in the freak accident.

"All of a sudden it just started rising like a balloon," eyewitness Mark Spooner told BBC television. "(It was) flinging people all over. Then it just seemed to flip over in the air."

The inflatable was brought down to earth after it drifted into a pole.

The exhibit, called Dreamspace, is a 5m high construction made out of thin plastic sheeting.

Half the size of a soccer pitch, it has walls that continuously change colour as visitors wander through its maze of corridors. The sculpture, designed by artist Maurice Agis, has been exhibited around the world.

- REUTERS