The Halloween-themed haunted house in Hong Kong’s Ocean Park has been closed down.
Over the weekend, a thrill-seeker entered a haunted house attraction hoping to have a fun-filled experience. Unfortunately, he ended up losing his life. The 21-year-old man was identified as Cheung.
Cheung, who was at Ocean Park with his girlfriend and friends for an annual company event, got hit by a machinery inside an attraction called “Buried Alive”. According to the theme park’s website, each visitor is supposed to “experience being buried alive alone, before fighting their way out of their dark and eerie grave”.
As per the usual procedure, Cheung was supposed to take the slide to enter the haunted house. Although he did enter the house safely, he reportedly ventured “by mistake” into a restricted area that was supposed to be “a place for the staff to carry out some maintenance work”.
Ocean Park CEO Matthias Li Sing-chung confirmed that the young man was found unconscious 5 minutes after he suffered a head injury from “moving parts of the slide”. Shortly after Cheung was brought to Ruttonjee Hospital, he was certified dead.
The haunted house attraction in Ocean Park was supposed to run from 5th – 31st October, but it was opened for the company event in which Cheung was associated with. The government has since ordered the closure of “Buried Alive” to facilitate the investigation linked to the incident.
Cheung’s death marks the first fatal accident in Ocean Park since it debuted in 2001.
Sources: SCMP, Strait Times, Channel NewsAsia/ Featured image: China Press/ Muhd Zakhiruddin.
