Donations pour in after Australian bouncy castle tragedy
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People leave flowers and tributes outside Hillcrest Primary School in Devonport, Australia, on Dec 17, 2021.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
SYDNEY (AFP) - A memorial to victims of a bouncy castle tragedy that killed five children in Australia continued to grow on Saturday (Dec 18), as an outpouring of support drove donations to more than A$1 million (S$980,000).
Three 12-year-old boys and two girls, aged 11 and 12, were killed when the large inflatable castle lifted off the ground on Thursday (Dec 16) in Devonport, northern Tasmania, police said.
Three more children were in critical condition in hospital in the state capital Hobart, and one was recovering at home.
On Saturday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison visited the growing memorial of soft toys, flowers and emotional messages laid outside the school.
An online fund-raiser - initially aiming to raise A$1,000 for the victims' families - climbed to more than A$1.1 million on Saturday morning.
"It's just beyond anything we could have thought possible," organiser of the fund-raiser Zoe Smith told media in Devonport.
"I think it just proves how shaken up everyone is and how tight-knit of a community we are."
Mr Morrison also announced the government would fund support to the families, first responders and community affected by the tragedy.
"We grieve with them, and we mourn with them, and we want to do everything we possibly can to help them through this terrible, terrible, unthinkable and imaginable tragedy," he told reporters in Hobart.
Earlier, the authorities said the children were thrown from a height of about 10m, citing initial witness reports.
Police said the probe into the incident is expected to take "quite some time" and would need to interview people at the outdoor party, which some 40 primary schoolchildren attended.
