4-year-old accidentally strangles herself at amusement park while staff stared at phones: report

A child in Ukraine died after she accidentally strangled herself inside an inflatable trampoline on May 13.

The incident happened when the child, just 4-years-old, was playing on an inflatable trampoline at a kids’ amusement park in Mykolaiv, Ukraine, and “became entangled” in the loops of the inflatable object, police said.

Serhii Shaikhet, chief of the regional police, said that the child died as a result of suffocation.

The 45-year-old owner of the inflatable trampoline was detained in connection with the incident.

Natalia Kuchynska, who was about to become the godmother of the 4-year-old girl, told Ukrainian news outlet TSN that three employees were on their phones when the incident happened.

“There were three girls (employees) near the trampoline who were supposed to watch over the children. But instead they sat with their backs to the trampoline, looking at something on their phones,” Kuchynska said.

Kuchynska said that people tried to save the child, but was later pronounced dead.

Police are still investigating the incident.