A mum has shared her fear after a fight broke out at Swansea’s Waterfront Winterland while her children waited for a ride. She believes it was her quick-thinking which saved her three children from getting injured as chaos reportedly broke out in the queue for the attraction.
Everything was going to plan for the mum of three, who visited the Christmas funfair on Saturday, November 19 with her children aged 13, 12 and nine until they joined the queue for the Moondancer ride. She claimed things start to escalate at around 7pm with dozens of teenagers arriving in the area.
The concerned parent from Swansea said: “There was a gang of boys that joined the queue and then another gang of boys came and they started arguing. It must have been a dad or somebody to tell them to stop pushing because there were children in the queue - and then I started to think, ok, things are getting a bit heated.
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“My children were already in the queue so I started calling them to tell them to come back, because I could sense something was going to happen. By then people had started fighting, and there were people falling because of the pushing.
“When they were getting out, one of the barriers came down on my nine-year-old daughter when she was trying to get out, and her leg ended up getting stuck in the barrier. I just kept pulling her out, and once I’d pulled her out there were members of staff in Winter Wonderland standing, watching what was happening.”
At the time, the child was complaining that she had broken her leg. It has now been confirmed she has not suffered from any long term damage, but had significant bruising.
Her mum added: “We go every year but my daughter’s said she never wants to go back now. There should have been much more security because it should have never happened... In my opinion, they can’t safeguard the public with that many and there should have been more security there.”
South Wales Police local police inspector Mark Watkins said: “Officers received reports of an altercation between a group of youths at Swansea Winter Wonderland just before 7pm on Saturday night, November 19. Two youths were removed from Winter Wonderland and given suitable words of advice by officers.”
A spokesperson for the company, Sayers, which organises Waterfront Winterland, said: "This weekend saw a minor incident occur between a few young people, which was brought under control quickly by our event security staff, with those involved ejected from the event and the police informed."
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