Twelve people were injured at a water park in British Columbia on Monday after they may have touched a railing that was possibly carrying an electrical current, according to the police and the water park.
Ten of the injured were middle school students on a field trip, a spokesman for the local school district said. They remained hospitalized on Tuesday with what the police described as serious but not life-threatening injuries.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they responded at 11:20 a.m. to a report of multiple injuries at Cultus Lake Waterpark, in Cultus Lake, B.C., about 65 miles southeast of Vancouver, near the U.S. border.
Paramedics and other emergency workers treated 12 people at the scene and then took them to the hospital with serious injuries, the police said.
The province’s workplace health and safety agency, WorkSafeBC, was leading an investigation to determine what caused the injuries, the police said. But the police said there was “no indication that the event was caused by a person, and investigators do not believe it to be the result of deliberate human action.”
“Our priority from the outset has been the safety and well-being of those involved,” Cpl. Carmen Kiener of the Upper Fraser Valley section of the R.C.M.P. said in a statement. “First responders acted quickly to secure the area, provide care and ensure all individuals received the medical attention they required.”
Andrew Steunenberg, an executive at Cultus Lake Waterpark, said the injuries happened in an area were visitors line up for one of the rides. When people made contact with a railing in that area, “that’s where the incident occurred for a brief time,” he told reporters on Monday.
Mr. Steunenberg added that “there seems to be an anomaly, and that’s what they’re investigating right now,” and that it “appears to be electrical.”
Ken Hoff, a spokesman for School District No. 43, which serves the Vancouver region, said that 10 of those who were injured were 6th and 7th graders from Minnekhada Middle School in Port Coquitlam, B.C. He said they had gone to the water park on a field trip and remained hospitalized on Tuesday. The district has sent counselors to the school, Mr. Hoff said.
“Our focus right now is managing the community, and supporting the students under medical care,” he said in an interview on Tuesday.
Cultus Lake Waterpark said in a statement that it was “deeply saddened” by the incident and grateful to the emergency workers who responded. The park said that it had closed temporarily to allow for a thorough investigation, and that it was cooperating with the authorities.
“We are determined to ensure that something like this does not happen within our facility again,” it said.
