{"id":261633,"date":"2016-10-25T12:13:42","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T12:13:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=261633"},"modified":"2016-10-25T12:13:42","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T12:13:42","slug":"four-killed-on-australian-theme-park-ride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=261633","title":{"rendered":"Four killed on Australian theme park ride"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"story-body__introduction\">Two men and two women have been killed on a ride at a theme park on Australia&#8217;s east coast.<\/p>\n<p>Two victims were thrown from a raft on the Thunder River Rapids ride at Dreamworld on Queensland&#8217;s Gold Coast, while two others were trapped inside, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>The park in Coomera has been closed and an investigation is under way.<\/p>\n<p>Dreamworld bills itself as Australia&#8217;s biggest theme park with more than 50 rides and attractions.<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder River Rapids ride whisks visitors in circular rafts along a fast-moving artificial river. Dreamworld describes it as a &#8220;moderate thrill&#8221; attraction.<\/p>\n<p>Queensland Ambulance spokesman Gavin Fuller blamed a &#8220;malfunction&#8221; for the accident.<\/p>\n<p>The victims have not been named but are reported to be two women aged 32 and 42 and two men aged 38 and 35.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"story-body__link-external\" href=\"http:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/National\/2016\/10\/25\/15\/48\/Reports-of-at-least-one-dead-in-serious-Dreamworld-ride-accident\">Australia&#8217;s 9News<\/a> reported that they were possibly from the same family.<\/p>\n<p>Eyewitness Lisa Capes told Australian broadcaster ABC that she saw people running away from the ride crying.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I was speaking to one of the guys and he said it was the raft or the boat thing in front of him, the whole thing flipped and everyone was screaming,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>Queensland police spokesman Todd Reid said investigators were reviewing CCTV footage of the incident while crews worked to remove the bodies from the scene.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is a complex retrieval involving heavy equipment and that will take several hours,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>He added he was not aware of any earlier problems with the ride, although that would form part of the investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The theme park, 48km (30 miles) south of Brisbane, said it was &#8220;working as quickly as possible to establish the facts around the incident and is working closely with emergency authorities and police to do this.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Craig Davidson, head of Ardent Theme Parks, said they were &#8220;deeply shocked and saddened&#8221; by the incident.<\/p>\n<p>Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said he was &#8220;very saddened to learn of the tragic accident&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Theme parks are a place for family fun and happiness, not tragedy,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said a thorough investigation would be held into the &#8220;horrific, horrific scene&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This has been an absolute tragedy, a tragic accident at Dreamworld where many thousands of people go on a daily basis,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Two men and two women have been killed on a ride at a theme park on Australia&#8217;s east coast. Two victims were thrown from a raft on the Thunder River Rapids ride at Dreamworld on Queensland&#8217;s Gold Coast, while two others were trapped inside, officials said. The park in Coomera has been closed and an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":261636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[107],"tags":[13008,13009,13010,13011],"class_list":["post-261633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","tag-amusement-park","tag-ardent-theme-parks","tag-australia-accident","tag-dreamworld-accident"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=261633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/261636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=261633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=261633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=261633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}