Six children and one adult were injured on Sunday after a startled camel began bucking and dragged a woman across the arena at a Pennsylvania circus, reports say.
An adult and two children were riding the camel at the Shrine Circus at Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena around 3:30 p.m. when a child apparently threw a shovel at the animal, a witness toldKDKA. Most of the injuries were minor, but one child suffered a fractured arm,Pittsburgh police said in a statement. All injuries were treated at local hospitals.
“They were giving camel rides and camels were walking around calmly,” Ruthie Kester, of Latrobe, told KDKA. “Then a kid threw a shovel at the camel’s feet, which startled the camel and it started to buck.”
In video footage of the incident, frightened circusgoers are shown fleeing the area when the camel took off. A woman who was trapped on the animal’s back struggled to hold on as the camel bucked several feet from its platform.
“They went crazy and they just started running everywhere and [my daughter] was holding onto me and she was super scared and she was crying,” another witness, Marlo Shipeck, told KDKA.
The children fell off the animal’s back as the camel dragged the woman along.
Officials were able to stop the camel in seconds and the show continued on as planned.
Ronald Smith, who captured the footage of the incident, tells PEOPLE he was sitting with his girlfriend and her children when the incident occurred.
Heshared the video on Facebook, writing, “Praying for the little girls at the circus and the mother that was traumatizing. My first and last time going to a circus.”
“I was in shock it was happening so I reached for my [cell phone] and broke out of the moment and captured it,” he says, noting that officials offered more camel rides in the wake of the incident.
In a statement to PEOPLE, circus officials said the camel had not “displayed any abnormal behavior prior to the incident.”
Pittsburgh Police are investigating the incident. In the statement, police said the animal became “spooked,” causing it to buck. Circus officials said they are unable to confirm that a child threw a shovel at the animal.
source: people.com
