Thirteen children hurt in carnival ride accident in Connecticut

MILFORD, Connecticut (Reuters) - A carnival ride at a festival in southern Connecticut malfunctioned on Sunday, sending a group of people tumbling to the ground and injuring 13 children, authorities said. Most of those injured at the Norwalk Oyster Festival were treated at the scene and released, though some of the children were more seriously hurt and taken to area hospitals, the Norwalk Police Department said in a statement on its Facebook page. A police spokeswoman reached by telephone declined to comment further on the incident. The swing ride apparently lost power while the children were airborne in their swings, Norwalk police said, but it was not immediately clear how far off the ground they were when they fell. The apparatus continued spinning even as the breakdown occurred, dragging the ride's chairs along the ground and bumping some of the fallen riders, police said. According to police accounts, parents were with all the children. The three-day festival remained open to the public following the mishap, but all the carnival rides at the event were shut down for an inspection by the state fire marshal's office, Norwalk Police Chief Tom Kulhawik said in a statement. The annual Oyster Festival, now in its 36th year, draws an estimated 50,000 to 60,000 people each year to the waterfront town of Norwalk, at the southwestern tip of Connecticut on Long Island Sound, organizers say. (Reporting by Richard Weizel; Additional reporting and writing by Jonathan Kaminsky; Editing by Steve Gorman and Nick Zieminski)