Ten people were injured when a toy brick display collapsed on to a crowd at an arcade center in Massachusetts, police said.
Peabody police said the incident took place on Tuesday at the In the Game family fun center when “a display was pulled down by balloons attached to it, causing it to fall”.
All 10 individuals sustained minor injuries, police said, and eight people were taken to hospital for treatment. It was not immediately clear if any of the people who were hurt were children.
Video posted on the company’s social media before the noon New Year’s Eve celebration showed balloons inside a netting attached to a large toy brick structure.
The display fell when employees at the arcade tried to conduct a balloon drop, knocking over the structure which fell about 12ft onto the crowd below, fire officials told NBC10 Boston.
An eyewitness who said she had watched the balloon drop with her family described the scene as “pure chaos” after the incident, WBZ-TV reported.
She said large toy bricks were “everywhere, kids were crying, there were tons of people all in the office, some with ice packs over their heads” she told the outlet.
The arcade was closed briefly but was allowed to reopen shortly after because there was “no structural damage” to the property, the Boston Globe reported.
The company said it is working with the authorities as the situation is being assessed.
• This article was amended on 1 January 2025. An earlier version incorrectly said that the display that fell was made up of Lego bricks.
