Children Injured In Bouncy Castle Horror

A father watched in horror as his son was thrown into the air and across a road after a bouncy castle blew away in high winds.

Seven-year-old Koby Dakin suffered serious injuries in the incident at the White House Hotel in Whitby, North Yorkshire, on Sunday afternoon.

His father Damien Young, 32, said Koby, his brother Kyle, aged 10, and an eight-year-old friend, Imogen Wright, were playing on the inflatable when a gust of wind ripped pegs out of the ground.

"It was getting quite windy, so we were thinking we'd better take them off. It didn't look very secure," he said.

"The next thing it just took off and flew up and spun around in the air. I saw my son laid on the floor and the other two holding their heads."

The bouncy castle blew across the road and caught on a telegraph pole. North Yorkshire Police called in North Yorkshire Fire and Rescue to make it safe as ambulance crews treated the three children at the roadside.

Kyle Dakin injured his knee while Imogen suffered concussion. Both children were taken to hospital in Scarborough.

Koby was airlifted to Middlesbrough's James Cook Hospital where his mother says is being treated for a broken leg, two arm fractures, a broken rib, a punctured lung and head trauma.

Terry Dakin, 33, spent the night at Koby's bedside and describes him as a little fighter.

"He had a neck brace on and he was on a spinal board - I thought he was going to have a spinal injury. It's good news that he hasn't," she said.

"He's had a really bad night, he's been screaming and crying with pain and he's just gone into theatre now.

" He's alright, he's just quite sleepy with all the medicines they've given him. I'm sure he'll be back to himself soon."

The Dakin family have released pictures of Koby's injuries to show just how dangerous bouncy castles can be.

Police said wind speeds reached almost 40mph at the time of the party, held to celebrate a christening.

The bouncy castle had been inflated in the exposed rear garden of the hotel, which backs on to a golf course set back from the cliff top to the north of the seaside town.

The injured boys' grandfather, Andy Dakin, arrived at the scene minutes after it happened and took a photograph of the deflated bouncy castle wrapped around the telegraph pole.

"The bouncy castle was five foot off the top of the pole and at the bottom of the wall and that's where my grandson ended up, smashed into the wall," he said.

Staff at the hotel said no one was available to speak about the incident, which is being investigated by Environmental Health officers at Scarborough Council.

It comes just weeks after the death of an eight-year-old girl on a bouncy castle in the Republic of Ireland.

Amy Byrne was killed when wind caught and lifted the play equipment in the garden of her home in County Waterford on May 14.