The fairground community in mourning this Saturday. One of them, a 40-year-old man who officiated at the Foire du Trône, a famous funfair in the 12th arrondissement of Paris, was brutally killed a few hours earlier, on the night of Friday to Saturday.
What happened
Around 12:25 a.m., the fairground man slipped into the “Crazy Mouse” merry-go-round to pick up a customer’s cap, before being hit in the head by a basket. The victim “would have found himself in the path of a carousel in motion for a reason yet to be determined with certainty”, specifies a source close to the file.
“When help arrived, he was already dead, he was probably killed instantly,” adds a spokesperson for the Paris fire brigade. The flashing lights of the emergency services dispatched to the scene quickly took precedence over the light atmosphere of the Foire du Trône.
Inside the basket, a woman and her children were taken care of, traumatized. A total of twelve people in shock, including five children, were treated on site.
An open investigation
The motive which led the showman to be in this place at this time – presumably to pick up the cap of a passenger on the merry-go-round, as mentioned above – must be verified. This is the reason why “an investigation has been opened on the count of manslaughter”, indicated the Paris prosecutor’s office. She doubles as the head of “hidden work” because the forties was first, according to information gathered by Le Parisien, an undeclared employee. The investigation was entrusted to the local reception and investigation service of the 12th arrondissement police station.
A fight on the sidelines of the emergency response
Around the carousel, a fight followed the general shock and confusion. Young people who were spending the evening there began to film the scene and laugh, to the point of triggering a major brawl with the showmen.
No serious injuries are to be deplored and contrary to what was initially written, the emergency services had no difficulty in intervening to take care of the 12 shocked people from the carousel. “We did not experience any difficulty, we were able to access the site and concentrate on taking care of the 12 people who were in the carousel”, specify the Parisian firefighters.
Another accident in early April
The Foire du Trône, a large Parisian amusement park located on the edge of the Bois de Vincennes, reopened in early April after two years of absence due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In mid-April, six members of a group of friends aged 20 to 35 had already been injured in another accident on a thrill ride. Before the epidemic, the event had already experienced its share of accidents and questions around its safety.
“It is a dramatic accident, the fairgrounds are in mourning but life goes on, explains to the Parisian Frédéric Papet, the communication officer of the Foire du Trône. The fair remains open. You can compare it to someone working on the highway and getting hit by a car. It’s a work accident.”