A girl has died after suffocating in a bouncy castle while distracted amusement park staff allegedly looked at their phones.
The tot, four, was visiting the park in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, with her mother when the tragedy struck last weekend.
Valeria was reportedly found tangled up in the ropes connected to the bouncy castle after accidentally hanging herself.
Her mother, Anna, had asked staff at the amusement park to check on her daughter when she was found.
Cops discovered three staff members who were supposed to be watching Valeria were distracted by their smartphones when she died, local media reports.
A close family friend, Natalia Kuchynska, said that Anna initially thought her daughter had “lost consciousness while playing in the heat”, and tried to wake her up.
The park staff ‘fled the scene after Valeria was found,’ Mrs Kuchynska said.
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‘Anna is devastated by the loss. The funeral day was very difficult.’
According to Mrs Kuchynska, a male witness called an ambulance while others splashed water on the girl and attempted CPR.
But Valeria was reportedly dead by the time the ambulance arrived.
The bouncy castle owner, 45, has been detained by police under an ongoing investigation.
She faces up to eight years in prison if found guilty.
The chief of police for Mykolaiv Oblast region, Sergiy Shaikhet, said: “It was preliminarily established that a four-year-old girl got entangled in the loops on the wall of a bouncy castle while playing on it. According to preliminary findings by experts, the child died as a result of suffocation.”
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