An explosion at Formosa Water Park in Taiwan left close to 500 people severely injured after colored powder being sprayed on a crowd ignited during a dance festival.
The incident took place at the water park in northern Taiwan on Saturday, where a dance party was being held. A fire on the music stage ignited a powder that was being dumped over the crowd of nearly 1,000 people and quickly spread across the entire area.
Video of the incident emerged on Saturday, showing the powder exploding as it spread across the crowd and quickly turned into an inferno . Hundreds of people were seen running through the raging flames to safety, with some falling to the ground and others struggling to make it out of the fire (footage of the water park explosion can be seen here, but be warned that it is graphic).
Photos of the aftermath showed a dance floor charred by flames and filled with deep pools of blood. Many of the injured took to the water park for some relief for their burns, with pictures showing victims with deep burns sitting in a wading pool.
A spokesperson for the New Taipei City fire department, Want Wei-sheng, said that 83 people were seriously injured and 131 others hurt in the Formosa Water Park explosion. Those numbers were later upped to close to 500 injured, but amazingly there were no fatalities reported as of late Saturday.
Officials addressed the fire on Saturday, saying that crews were doing all they could to respond.
“We are very regretful (for) this accident that caused injuries to many victims,” Formosa Fun Coast said in a statement. “The most urgent matter currently for us is to handle and assist with… victims on the scene and work comprehensively with the New Taipei Fire Department.”
The fire was brought under control quickly, officials said, which may have helped decrease the severity of some of those injured. But afterward officials struggled to deal with the scale of the incident, and emergency response workers were forced to use inflatable water park rats to evacuate some of the victims.
CNN reported on the incident.
“Calling it the ‘worst incident of mass injury (ever) in New Taipei,’ Taiwan’s most populous city, Mayor Eric Chu called for ambulance support from neighboring Taipei, Taoyuan and Keelung. In addition, Taiwanese defense ministry spokesman Luo Shao-he said all military hospitals in northern Taiwan were prepared to take patients.
“Formosa Fun Coast indicated the fiery explosion occurred during a ‘Color Play Asia’ party put on by a separate marking company that leased out space at the park.”
Officials are still trying to determine the cause of the Formosa Water Park explosion.
[Image via YouTube]
