More than a dozen children reportedly were hospitalized in Canada on Wednesday after falling about 15 to 20 feet during a school trip to Fort Gibraltar in Winnipeg.
A total of 17 people, including one adult, were taken to local medical facilities after the incident at the historical site, according to Jason Shaw, a Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service assistant chief, as quoted by the CBC.
"Today at 9:55 a.m., we received a 911 call at Whittier Park for a school group that fell," he said, noting that the young victims were all between the ages of 10 and 11.
Three of the children are in unstable condition while the rest are stable, according to the CBC.
Shaw said the group fell around 15 to 20 feet while inside the fort.
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"Fort Gibraltar was built by the Montreal-based North West Company (NWC) in 1810 at the forks of the Red and Assiniboine rivers. Home to a staff of 10 to 20 voyageurs, canoe guides, interpreters, tradesmen, clerks and NWC wintering partners or Bourgeois, the fort was a hub for fur trade commerce and for developing communities in the early days of Winnipeg," Fort Gibraltar says on its website.
But the original fort was burned to the ground in 1816 by members of the competing Hudson’s Bay Company.
"They too maintained a massive network of forts and also employed a large staff that required similar levels of provisioning," its website says. "Their need for supplies and territorial expansion led to many conflicts between the two great fur trade rivals."
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In 1978, the current Fort Gibraltar – which is where the incident happened Wednesday – was "rebuilt in Saint-Boniface, across the river from its original site, by the Festival du Voyageur, a community non-profit who's (sic) mandate is to promote joie de vivre and extend the reach of French language and culture throughout the year through artistic, educational, historical and cultural experiences inspired by the voyageur era," the website added.
Details about the nature of the incident were not immediately available.
The Winnipeg Sun reports that the school group fell off a platform.
In images published by the newspaper, a wooden platform could be seen leaning up against a structure and surrounded by police caution tape.
Other images taken at the scene showed police vehicles responding to the site.
"Distressed to hear this horrible news in our community. My thoughts are with the injured and their families, and my thanks go to the first responders and staff at the Children’s Hospital," Dan Vandal, a member of the Canadian parliament representing the area, wrote on Twitter.
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