Teenage boy killed at fairground after ‘serious incident’ hours before attraction due to open
Health Safety Executive informed after teenager pronounced dead at scene
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A teenage boy has died following a “serious incident” at a fairground in Kent.
Emergency services were called to the attraction in Pencester Gardens, Dover, shortly after 7.40am on Wednesday.
The circumstances surrounding the incident are unclear, but South East Coast Ambulance Service confirmed the boy was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is investigating the circumstances of the incident, which Kent Police said was “not suspicious”.
An ambulance spokesperson said: “We were called at 7.42am this morning to a serious incident at Pencester Gardens in Dover.
“We immediately dispatched a number of clinical resources to the scene, however, sadly, a teenage boy was pronounced as deceased at the scene.”
A Kent Police spokesman added: “Kent Police was called by South East Coast Ambulance Service to Pencester Gardens, Dover, at 7.45am on Wednesday 3 August 2022.
“No suspicious circumstances have been reported, and the Health and Safety Executive have been informed.”
An HSE spokesperson said: “HSE is assisting emergency services with their response.”
The site was hosting the Family Funfair run by Kent-based Forrest Amusements which, according to a poster, was due to open to the public on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the company declined to comment, but said the company would be issuing a statement later.
Its website says it was founded in 1889 and is the largest supplier of funfair attractions in the county.
A witness told PA news agency she had seen “three ambulances, a couple of fire trucks and some police vehicles along Pencester Road, which was blocked off”.
“They were saying there had been a fatality, and the entrance to the fair had been cordoned off with tape,” she added.
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