A primary school boy was in intensive care with serious head injuries on Thursday after falling from the second floor at an amusements hall in Al-Ahsa. The father of the boy said his son had brought him a letter from his school requesting consent for him to go on a trip to the site, and that after giving his permission he himself went to the amusements hall. “I saw a child playing up above and started running to where he was with other people, but he fell,” the father said. When the child fell to the ground, he realized it was his son. “People brought water and splashed his face, and he came round for a few seconds but then lost consciousness again.” The child was taken to King Fahd Hospital in Al-Hofouf where it was revealed he had a cracked skull and two broken arms. Ahmad Al-Ghunaim, the head of Boys' Education in Al-Ahsa, confirmed the incident. “We will release a statement on the circumstances of the incident and measures taken,” Al-Ghunaim said. The incident revives questions over the safety of school trips to places of recreation in the Kingdom. In April 14-year-old Majed Basaeed entered a swimming pool in Jeddah unattended and sank to the bottom, resulting in a coma that led a few days later to his death. Concerns were raised over the safety of the site, the qualifications and response of its staff, and the organization of supervision on the part of the school. In March a seven year-old boy on a school trip died while on a water train ride at a Jeddah shopping mall amusements area. After both incidents education officials were quoted as saying that there was to be a ban on school trips to “dangerous places”, said to include amusement parks and swimming pools.
