People visit the Gronalund amusement park in Stockholm, Sweden, September 5, 2009. On June 25, 2023, the park’s Jetline roller coaster was involved in a fatal accident, according to local media reports.
TT News Agency | via Reuters
One person was killed and nine others were injured when a roller coaster derailed in an amusement park accident in Stockholm on Sunday, sending some passengers to the ground, police and park officials said.
Witnesses described chaotic scenes in Grona Lund Park, where the front of the train appeared to jump off the tracks before coming to a halt, with one of the carriages tilting towards the ground.
“The front part of the train derailed and stopped at a height of 6 to 8 meters (20 to 25 feet) above the tracks,” said park chief executive Jan Eriksson. “There were 14 people on board, 1 People died and many were injured.”
Nine people were taken to hospital, one with serious injuries, local authorities said. Three of the injured, children, were reported to have suffered minor injuries.
Witness Ziba Assadi told Swedish television TV4 that she was standing under the Jetline coaster when she saw the wheel assembly of one of the coasters crash to the ground.
“Then the car stopped and people flew out and fell out of the car,” she said.
Witnesses said two or three people fell from the car, one of whom managed to hold on to the rails. Photos from the scene showed a man sitting on a beam beneath the stopped train.
“So he straddled the beam and waited,” Asadi said. “A complete panic.”
Park officials said the amusement park has been evacuated following the accident and will remain closed for seven days while investigators can pinpoint what went wrong.
“This should not happen,” said Annika Troselius, spokeswoman for Gröna Lund. “Safety is the most important thing for us. We would never open an attraction if we were not confident that it would be safe, so this is something we need to thoroughly understand. investigation.”
Police are launching a criminal investigation into possible manslaughter, causing bodily harm and causing danger to another.
According to Gröna Lund, the 800-meter (2,600-foot) Jetline coaster opened in 1988 and was renovated in 2000. It has a maximum height of 30 meters (98 ft) and a top speed of 90 km/h (56 mph).
Opened in 1883, Gröna Lund is Sweden’s oldest amusement park.