Shock As Girl Chokes On Balloon

A Co Tyrone freak accident with a balloon has ended a kids' party in tragedy.

It happened in Spamount, Castlederg, and saw Clarice Harron, a 10-year-old girl, choking on a balloon at a friend's birthday party last Saturday.

The girl was blowing up a balloon when it got sucked into her throat, in a tragic, freak accident.

Immediately afterwards, a local doctor was called to the scene along with an ambulance, according to the Northern Ireland Ambulance Service, arrived 11 minutes later.

Although paramedics and the doctor spent more than 20 minutes with the girl, before she was rushed to Londonderry's Altnagelvin Hospital, she tragically died.

They said that resuscitation efforts continued until she was pronounced dead, approximately an hour after the accident.

Clarice, who would have been 11-years-old on Monday, was from Glenview in Killen just outside Castlederg.

She was a pupil from at Edwards Primary School, will be closed on Tuesday as the children are to be involved in the funeral service that will take place at St John's Church of Ireland Parish Church.

All her classmates - some of whom looked on, horrified, as the tragic incident unfolded during the party - are being counselled.

The Harron family's minister, Reverend Alan Peek, explained that parents and teachers were helping to support them, and said they were making pictures in memory of the tragic child.

Reverend Peek, own is in Clarice's class, said: "There is absolute shock. The children are full of questions about how and why and there is just numbness. The town is just numb after this tragic accident."

He added Clarice's death is also a shocking blow to the wider Spamount community.

The Western Education and Library Board's Chief Executive Barry Mulholland said in a statement he wished to extend his deep sympathy, on behalf of board members and staff, to the Harron family as well as to the staff and pupils of Edwards Primary School.

UUP Councillor Derek Hussey, a close family friend, said her parents and her three older siblings were devastated by the tragedy.

Father Colm O'Doherty from St Patrick's Church described Clarice's death as "heartbreaking".

He said: "It is terrible, an awful situation, dreadful, a complete freak accident and that is all we can describe it as."

(CL/BMcC)