News: Child falls from balcony

Published in the August 17 2010 issue of The Edmonton Sun. News


Child falls from balcony

Shoppers and employees at West Edmonton Mall were interrupted Monday morning by screams after a child fell from a top-floor railing at the mall.

“As soon as I heard the first scream, I knew something bad had happened and I went running over there to see,” said Virginia Montgomery, general manager at the Bourbon Street Boston Pizza, who said a large crowd had formed around where the boy had hit the ground.

“I saw a young boy lying on the tile next to the fountain.”

Police said it was around 11:40 a.m. Monday when a three-year-old boy climbed over a balcony railing and fell from the second level down to the first level near Bourbon Street on Level One, Phase III.

The boy hit the walkway then rolled into water by the nearby fountain.

“We got a call reporting a child had fallen from a balcony of the second floor at West Edmonton Mall. We sent a fire crew,” said Tim Wilson, spokesman with Edmonton Rescue Services. “There was a child lying on the ground and the ground was a little bit wet, next to a fountain.”

“I can’t even explain the screaming that we heard,” Montgomery said. “It really shook me up … his chest was going up and down really heavily.”

She said another witness who had a medical background was helping with the boy before rescue crews arrived.

Wilson said the boy was taken to the University of Alberta hospital and was conscious. He had minor injuries.

It was not known Monday night whether he was still at the hospital.

Police say the boy was with his family when the accident occurred and the incident was not criminal.

Calls to West Edmonton Mall were not returned by deadline.

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