Two children hurt when thrown from jumping castle lifted into air by wind in Mount Duneed, near Geelong

Two children were injured when a jumping castle was swept into the air by high winds at a party near Geelong on Saturday morning.

The children were thrown from the jumping castle around 11am and taken to hospital, and are in stable condition.

Paramedics and police rushed to the house on Lower Duneed Road in Mount Duneed, and police said “a large number of other children also playing on the jumping castle at the time escaped injury”.

Ambulance Victoria confirmed “two primary school aged children” were taken to Geelong University Hospital with injuries to their upper bodies in a stable condition.

The incident has revived memories of the tragedy in Hillcrest, Tasmania, in 2021, when six children died after a jumping castle at a primary school fete was lifted into the air and thrown 75 metres by a “mini tornado” during a freak weather event.

Three young children were also taken to hospital after powerful winds lifted a jumping castle into the air in Sydney, as wild weather caused widespread power outages in the city’s west and left more than 90,000 households without electricity.

Ausgrid confirmed about 40,000 customers had been left in the dark, as swaths of Sydney’s west suffered outages after high winds damaged one of the company’s substations. Another 50,000 customers on Endeavour Energy’s network were also without power.

The outages came after a cool change ripped through NSW, with gusts of wind surpassing 80km/h recorded at Sydney Airport late on Saturday afternoon. The temperature in Sydney had hovered about 30 degrees, accompanied by strong north-westerly winds.

Emergency services were called to Gardiner Park in Banksia, about 12 kilometres south of Sydney’s CBD, about 1.20pm on Saturday after the jumping castle became airborne, a NSW Ambulance spokeswoman said. The children were taken to Sydney Children’s Hospital after being treated by paramedics at the scene.

A preschool-aged boy and girl suffered head injuries, while a baby was treated for minor injuries. A woman was also taken to hospital with minor injuries, the spokeswoman said. All three children were in a stable condition.

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