A bouncy castle with three terrified young children inside was hurled more than 50 feet into the air when a freak tornado swept across a US beach.
The youngsters were then "ejected" from the inflatable mid-air leaving one seriously injured and the other two with minor fractures, according to police in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Five-year-old Shadaja Bryant, who suffered a broken arm, told NBC: "I was thinking I was about to die.
"I was in the bounce house and then it flew while I was in there, and then I fell in the dirt."
The bouncy castle was whipped into the air when the weather suddenly changed as families were gathered at Fort Lauderdale Beach yesterday.
Witness Jammelia Wray described seeing a child fall from the sky, saying: "It was like spinning around, broke the basketball goal, it broke the light poles.
"It kept spinning and that's when the little girl fell on the concrete."
<blockquote lang="en"><p dir="ltr" lang="en">Waterspout comes ashore on Ft Laud Beach, launching bounce house into the air. 3 kids injured, one seriously. <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.awin1.com/awclick.php?mid=9&id=222025&p=http://t.co/XDuxfuKRQE" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-40436-http://t.co/XDuxfuKRQE" data-vars-event-id="c23">pic.twitter.com/XDuxfuKRQE</a>— Frank Guzman (@fguzmanon7) <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://twitter.com/fguzmanon7/status/602881613031145473" class="body-link" data-vars-item-name="BL-40436-https://twitter.com/fguzmanon7/status/602881613031145473" data-vars-event-id="c23">May 25, 2015</a>
Fort Lauderdale Police said the wind caused the bouncy castle to "take flight" before "ejecting three young children onto the sand".
It then flew across four lanes of traffic and landed in a car park, police said.
Officer Deanna Greenlaw said: "These bounce houses are permitted. It's an incident, an act of mother nature that couldn't be prevented."
