Boy Playing in Inflatable Zorb Ball Is Blown Up Into Air

A young boy has been injured after the inflatable Zorb ball he was inside was "swept into the air" due to a strong gust of wind.

The boy, aged 9, was sent airborne in a park on June 4, at the Southport Food and Drink Festival near the city of Liverpool in the northwest of the U.K.

The ball was flung into the air by the wind with the boy inside, sending him plunging back toward the ground, with the ball popping on impact.

"It was quite breezy, then all of a sudden, there was a gust of wind. It [the inflatable ball] went over the trees, and we thought it was a balloon at first before we realized it was one of the inflatables with a child inside and it landed right over there," one eyewitness told local newspaper the Liverpool Echo.

"There was a gust of wind. The inflatable Zorb took off from the water pool with the boy inside. The Zorb then landed on a wheelie bin, the Zorb popped on impact, leaving the boy on the ground," another witness said.

"Onlookers rushed over to help, the PA [public address system] put an announcement out for security and St John's [ambulance service] to attend. They were on the scene within a minute or so. They were brilliant, took control of the situation and remained calm. A few minutes later, the air ambulance circled for somewhere to land. At the same time, the rapid response and main ambulance turned up."

The median lethal distance of a fall, which is the height from which half the people who fall without a parachute won't survive, is around 48 feet, according to the medical reference book Trauma Anesthesia. One 2004 study in the journal Critical Care Medicine found that 100 percent of those who fell from 98 feet or higher died.

The exact height that the boy fell from has not been confirmed, but some onlookers said it was between 50 and 65 feet. The boy was airlifted to the hospital, and the area of the park was taped off for the afternoon. The North West Ambulance Service said that the boy's injuries were serious, but the Merseyside Police officers have added that they were not life-threatening.

Zorb balls have been associated with injuries and even deaths before. In 2013, a man was killed after his ball rolled into a ravine in the Caucasus Mountains at the intersection of Asia and Europe.

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