Australian demolition kills young onlooker
July 13, 1997
Web posted at: 11:50 a.m. EDT (1550 GMT)CANBERRA, Australia (CNN) -- Australian authorities were searching for answers Sunday after a hospital demolition -- billed by local officials as a family event -- sent debris flying into a crowd of thousands of onlookers, killing a 12-year-old girl.
At least nine other people were injured when the planned implosion went wrong.
The head of the local government in Canberra, Kate Carnell, said officials were working to determine what happened.
"It appears that something has gone wrong and we need, I need, to find out what that was," said Carnell, who was watching the demolition with her family. "There was no indication whatsoever that this was even a possibility."
Carnell said the company in charge of the demolition of the capital's old hospital had said debris would be confined to within 50 yards of the site, and a 200-yard exclusion zone had been set up for added safety.
The girl killed by the flying debris was standing in a park about 400 yards across a lake from the hospital. Witnesses said debris was sent flying more than 500 yards from the blast site.
Debris rained down
"There was all this shrapnel raining across the lake in front of us," said Innes Willox, a Foreign Ministry spokesman who was standing in the worst hit area with his family.
Local government and police launched separate investigations, and a counseling service has been set up for the tens of thousands of tourists and Canberra residents who had packed the lakeshore and surrounding parks to watch the event.
The implosion had been widely advertised to draw family crowds and a fireworks display was included in the entertainment.
The main construction union called on Carnell to step down pending a government inquiry, which is to probe the awarding of the contract and the decision to implode rather than tear down the building.
"Dealing with explosives is always a dangerous affair and there was no need to implode the building," said George Wason, the local branch secretary for the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
Canberra is located about 155 miles (250 km) southwest of Sydney and has a population of nearly 300,000.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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