Teen arrested after child falls from height at Tate Modern
Written by News on 04/08/2019
A teenager has been arrested after a child fell from a height at the Tate Modern art gallery in central London, police have said.
The youngster has been flown to hospital by London’s Air Ambulance.
The Metropolitan Police said the child’s not condition is not yet known, adding that officers remain in the area.
The force said in a tweet: “Officers are in the vicinity of the Tate Modern following an incident this afternoon.
“A child fell from height and is being taken to hospital by London’s Air Ambulance. We await an update on his condition.
“A teenager has been arrested in connection with the incident.”
Twitter user @AndyBanksideSE1 posted video of the air ambulance outside the gallery, located on the south bank of the River Thames, saying the child was “trapped between the two buildings”.
A later video he posted showed the helicopter leaving.
A London Ambulance service spokesman said that after they were called at 2:40pm two ambulance crews were sent to the scene, along with the Hazardous Area Response Team and the air ambulance.
“We treated a person at the scene and took them to hospital as a priority,” the spokesman added.
A woman screamed ‘He’s my son! He’s my son!’ after a young boy fell from a viewing gallery after the incident which happened shortly before 3pm, the Mirror reported.
The paper quoted a witness who had been on the fifth floor in the member’s lounge, who said: “I heard the impact and then screaming from above as a woman screamed “he’s my son! He’s my son!”.
“I went inside because the screaming was horrific, the boy didn’t make any noise but the people from the viewing platform were screaming.”
The gallery confirmed later that parts of building were evacuated and parts were on “lockdown”, confirming what some visitors reported on social media.
People said no one was being allowed in or out while emergency services dealt with the incident.
One, @slizzabella said they were “trapped inside” with “all the doors locked”.
The gallery said there was no risk to public and added that it was closed for rest of day.
The Tate Modern was the UK’s most popular tourist attraction in 2018 after being visited 5.9 million times, according to the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions.
With the schools having broken up and holiday season begun, there are likely to have been thousands of visitors to the gallery on Sunday.
More follows…
(c) Sky News 2019: Teen arrested after child falls from height at Tate Modern
