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VIDEO: Horror as French fairground ride snaps

Oliver Gee
Oliver Gee - [email protected]
VIDEO: Horror as French fairground ride snaps
The thrill seekers were lucky to escape with their lives. File photo: AFP

Thrill-seekers somehow escaped largely unscathed after an elastic rope snapped on a "slingshot" ride at a theme park in southern France.

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For those who are already scared of amusement park rides, now might be a good time to look away. 
 
The video below, which was uploaded to YouTube on Friday, captures the exact moment one side of the elastic snapped on a slingshot ride  - also known as a reverse bungee - at Luna Park, at Cap d'Agde on the coast of southern France. 
 
It had been viewed more than half a million times by Monday morning.
 
After the slingshot catapults its passengers into the air, the elastic snaps on the way down, violently jolting the cable as the crowd below gasps and cries out in shock. 
 
The cable car continues to bob up and down, smashing into the stanchion to the right of the screen before eventually coming to a stop. 
 
See the video below. The slingshot takes off at the 35-second mark.
 
 
Paramedics were soon on the scene, with a 24-year-old woman suffering from a broken leg, reported the local Hérault 24 newspaper. The other person on the ride was not seriously injured.
 
Theme park officials blamed the accident on a "manufacturing defect" in the elastic. An investigation has been launched.

 
 
 
 

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