Scary scene at Harbour Nights about 45 minutes ago.
About 5 minutes after the Gombeys began to perform at the flagpole there were screams coming from further down Front Street, towards the bird cage.
I turned around and saw two white horses pulling a carriage, with no driver in it, bolting at full pace towards the 5 or 6 row deep crowd, backs turned, of which I was at the back with my family and brother's family.
While some people (including us) were able to get out of the way, others were trapped in the crowd, oblivious to what was about to happen as the horses and carriage crashed into the crowd, adjacent to the stage. A number of people were trapped beneath the horses and the carriage.
The crowd got together to lift the carriage up, and get people underneath out as quickly as they could while securing the horses. There were a number of injuries, some cuts and head wounds and some that appeared potentially more severe.
Emergency services were there quickly with the centre area being cordoned off for what appeared to be about 5-10 more seriously injured people. Hopefully these won't turn out to be too severe and everyone will recover. Let's hope.
It was a very scary moment, but the emergency services, off-duty nurses, police officers and those in attendance responded quickly.
A sad start to what was looking like a great kick-off to Harbour Nights.
Posted by Christian S. Dunleavy