Falling palm tree kills boy, 4
A TEENAGER has told how she and other tourists struggled in vain to lift a fallen palm tree and save a four-year-old boy crushed beneath it in Port Douglas yesterday.
The boy, who was holidaying in the resort town, died when the palm tree fell on him as he walked with his father along Owen St at 3pm.
"We saw a man and a little boy," said the teenager, who asked not to be named.
"Then a tree fell. It happened really quickly.
"I didn't realise the boy was under it - but he (my brother) did.
"Then the dad started to scream.
"We ran over and tried to lift off the tree.
"Then two bigger guys came to try and lift it."
Ambulance officers raced to Owen St, in the heart of the tourist precinct of the town 70km north of Cairns, but were unable to revive the child.
"I couldn't believe it killed someone," a Macrossan St worker, who asked not to be named, said at the scene.
There had been 30-40 knot winds gusting through town at the time, he said.
Workers in nearby shops witnessed the aftermath of the incident as police and SES cordoned off Owen St and re-directed pedestrian traffic.
Mossman CIB Det Leo Lahey said: "It was one of those terrible, terrible things … one of those devastating things that really rips people apart."
The four-year-old's distraught parents were taken to Mossman Hospital and treated for shock, he said.
And a furious Det Lahey lashed out at gawking crowds who had refused to move on from the tragic scene.
"The investigating detectives have expressed disappointment of certain bystanders at this sensitive and tragic scene," he said.
"They've made it exceedingly difficult, stopping to look, refusing to leave when asked."
Mossman detectives will report directly to the northern coroner.
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Tragedy: Onlookers struggled to get the heavy tree off the boy yesterday but paramedics were unable to revive him.
Shock: The young boy's family looks on in shock.
Lock down: SES and police closed down the street and redirected pedestrians around the scene.
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