Children killed after bouncing castle gets blown high into the sky

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Two children have been killed and 20 other people injured after a bouncy castle was blown high into the sky in central China’s Henan province.

A small whirlwind known as a dust devil tore the inflatable from the ground at a fairground in Yucheng county.

One parent reportedly told local media that she saw children fall from a height of about 20 metres (66ft).

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A county government official told the South China Morning Post it was unclear whether “human factors” played a role.

Local authorities said 18 other children and two adults were taken to hospital. One child was in a serious condition while the rest were being treated for minor injuries.

A video of the incident on Thepaper.cn shows a chaotic scene as a vertical whirlwind, similar to a tornado, whips dust and debris into the air at the tourist site.

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Zhang Xia, a senior weather forecaster with the provincial bureau, confirmed that the weather phenomenon was a dust devil, not a tornado.

Zhang said dust devils occurred on sunny days, often in deserts or dry riverbeds, while tornadoes, which are more intense, formed on rainy days. Dust devils can be as big as 10 metres wide and more than 1km in height and last for three to four minutes.

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