A seven-year-old boy and his 24-year-old sister, who came with their family, were killed when several projectiles fell in the middle of a group of spectators a few dozen meters from the shooting range, shortly after 11 p.m., in circumstances which remain to be clarified.
A relative of the young woman, seriously burned, was transported to a specialized unit at the Tours hospital. His days are no longer in danger, according to the public prosecutor of Angers Eric Bouillard.
Six other spectators, including the parents of the two victims, were more lightly affected.
The day after the accident, “we took stock of the regulatory part” during the day on Friday, told AFP the public prosecutor of Angers, Eric Bouillard, specifying that the investigation was now open. for manslaughter and manslaughter.
The show was organized by an association, Cholet Evènements, which has worked for many years with the Breton company HTP, based in Guichen (Ille-et-Vilaine), said the magistrate.
For this type of show, “the regulations are very clear”, continued the magistrate. It is planned in particular “a perimeter of security and exclusion of the public”, an area which, in this case, was fixed at “150m” from the launch pad. “It is then up to the organizer to enforce this perimeter,” added Mr. Bouillard.
An expert will be appointed concerning the incident and “we still have to hear the victims as well as the people in charge of security”, specified the prosecutor of Angers.
The organizers “were aware that there had been something abnormal” but they “did not necessarily realize immediately that something serious had just happened”, he underlined, questioned on the fact that the fireworks have ended.
According to Sandy Beauvois, 25, forklift operator in Cholet, “we were a hundred people 50 meters from the launch pad” when the tragedy occurred. “A firing device may have lain on the ground because we saw a start of fire on the launch pad, 10 seconds later a rocket came to explode in the middle of the crowd”, says-t- he to AFP.
Sections of grass catch fire, people shout, a beginning of panic wins some of the assistance close to the launch pad while the emergency services provide first aid to the victims on the spot.
– Malfunction when shooting –
The investigation, entrusted to the Departmental Security of Maine-et-Loire and to the police station of Cholet, began on Friday morning, with in particular the hearing of the fireworks on site and the organizers.
Several dozen people had attended the fireworks by placing themselves just behind the fences around the stadium where the event was taking place, opposite the main square where the bulk of the spectators gathered, according to several testimonies.
The HTP company estimated on Friday that the area of the accident was in theory “prohibited to the public”.
“A malfunction occurred during the firing, resulting in the projection of the products contained in the tubes in the direction of an area prohibited to the public, opposite to the spectator area,” she said in a press release.
The mayor of Cholet, Gilles Bourdouleix, for his part affirmed that the security device had been made in the rules.
“We have actually set up a perimeter, finally, the organizers with the fireworks company. To my knowledge, it has not been questioned by anyone,” he told AFP. AFP.
The accident, revealed by the daily Courrier de l’Ouest, was filmed and widely broadcast on social networks. The exploitation of these videos will be useful to the investigators to understand what happened, according to the prosecutor.
