Earlier this afternoon, at around 3 PM, five guests riding the Big Thunder Mountain Railroad roller coaster at Disneyland Paris were apparently injured when a scenic rock fell on them. The French paper Le Parisien first reported the incident this afternoon, with a spokesperson for Eurodisney releasing statements confirming the reporting.
According to its reports, the train was located on the third lift (“lift C”), which is enclosed in a tunnel going through the “mountain.” This tunnel is elaborately themed to a cave environment with lighting and sound effects simulating an earthquake which causes the tunnel to cave in, but instead of escaping at the last second, this time, a rock did indeed fall and injured several riders.
Of the five riders injured, four were treated on-site before returning to the park, but the fifth had to be taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for head injuries. While the guest is being treated in the hospital, the man’s family is being accommodated for free by the resort while he is there, according to Le Parisien.
The rock which caused the injuries is a simple fake rock made of a combination of fiberglass and wood. What caused the rock to detach from the tunnel remains unknown, but local police from Chessy will be investigating the incident, and the park will remain closed until further notice. We will report more details as they are released.