Five-year-olds in Britain are, on average, up to seven centimetres shorter than children in other wealthy nations, new data has revealed.
06.06.2023 - 15:43 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A man has recalled the surreal moment he tried to catch a boy who was catapulted into the air inside an inflatable zorb ball.
Paul Holmes screamed "there's a boy in the sky" as he watched the inflatable fly '20 meters' into the air at Southport Food and Drink Festival on Sunday. The 43-year-old, from Southport, rushed to help the boy after watching the freak accident unfold at Victoria Park.
Merseyside Police has confirmed that a nine-year-old boy was seriously injured at the festival over the weekend and remains in hospital today. The force is now investigating the cause of the incident amid reports that the zorb was blown off the water and onto the grass by a gust of wind.
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Paul has spoken to the Liverpool Echo about how he ripped the ball open to free the boy before running into a marquee to ask for help. "We were just stood next to the zorb pit looking for something to eat. There was a breeze quite quick and I just said 'oh that breeze is nice'," he recalled.
"In my peripheral vision I saw two of the zorb balls go up into the sky and I just screamed at the top of my voice 'there's a kid in one of those balls someone catch him'," Paul said. "The minute I shouted 'there's a boy in the sky' the staff at the inflatable place were quick to get all of the kids out of the remaining balls in the pit."
Paul said one of the zorbs was "probably 15 to 20 metres in the sky easily". He said: "The wind just whipped it up into the sky. It was like a bit of a freak weather phenomenon."
Paul said he was running around trying to work out where the ball was going to land in a bid to catch it, but he missed it due to a gust of wind. "Me and another gentleman
Five-year-olds in Britain are, on average, up to seven centimetres shorter than children in other wealthy nations, new data has revealed.
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A horrifying video has captured the moment a nine-year-old boy was flung 20 feet into the air while inside an inflatable zorb ball.
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Horror unfolded at a festival on Sunday afternoon (June 4) after a young boy in an inflatable zorb ball was 'swept into the air' by a 'gust of wind' and injured.
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