Teenage boy dies in funfair incident

A teenage boy has died at a fair on the Kent coast.

Emergency services were called to Pencester Gardens in Dover in the early hours of Wednesday.

The site was hosting the Family Funfair run by Kent-based Forrest Amusements which, according to a poster, was due to open to the public on Wednesday.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is investigating the circumstances of the incident, which Kent Police said was “not suspicious”.

A South East Coast Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We were called at 7.42am this morning to a serious incident at Pencester Gardens in Dover.

“We immediately dispatched a number of clinical resources to the scene, including our Hart team and critical care paramedics; however, sadly, a teenage boy was pronounced as deceased at the scene.”

A Kent Police spokesman said: “Kent Police was called by South East Coast Ambulance Service after a teenage boy suffered injuries at a funfair site in Pencester Gardens, Dover, at 7.45am on Wednesday 3 August 2022.

“Officers attended, along with Kent Fire and Rescue Service, and the boy was pronounced deceased at the scene.

“The death is not being treated as suspicious and a report will be prepared for the coroner.”

An HSE spokesman said: “HSE is assisting emergency services with their response.”

A spokesman for Forrest Amusements declined to comment, but said the company would be issuing a statement later.

Its website says it was founded in 1889 and is the largest supplier of funfair attractions in the county.

A witness told the PA news agency that she had seen “three ambulances, a couple of fire trucks and some police vehicles along Pencester Road, which was blocked off. They were saying there had been a fatality, and the entrance to the fair had been cordoned off with tape.”