Ferris wheel fire started by 'material' under ride — police

Police in Germany investigating a Ferris wheel fire that injured at least 23 people said Sunday that material under the ride ignited before spreading to two of the gondolas or passenger pods.

The blaze broke out on Saturday evening in front of tens of thousands of people during the Highfield music festival, near the eastern city of Leipzig.

What did the police say?

In an update on X, formerly Twitter, police from the state of Saxony confirmed their initial findings.

"After the fire, investigators were deployed [and] an initial assessment was made," the police statement said.

"By means we don't fully know, material underneath the Ferris wheel caught fire. As a result, the fire spread to a gondola," it continued.

Bild newspaper reported that the material was likely mats, which it said could have been ignited by cigarettes, pyrotechnics or a cable fire.

Police said 65 people were treated at the scene and 16 of the 23 injured were moved to hospitals for further treatment.

What happened on the Ferris wheel?

The fire started at around 9:00 p.m. local time (1900 UTC) on Saturday when the festival was in full swing at Störmthaler Lake, near Leipzig.

German rapper Ski Aggu was in the middle of his set when he was told to announce details of the Ferris Wheel blaze to festivalgoers.

Many of the crowd turned to take videos of the blaze a few hundred meters from the stage, footage showed.

Local media said the fire spread to one gondola before ripping through a second on the 38-meter (25-foot) high Ferris wheel.

Among those injured, four people suffered burns, while another was hurt in a fall. Several others, including first responders and police officers, were taken to hospital with possible smoke inhalation, DPA news agency reported.

Ride owner: No passengers in blaze-hit gondolas

The ride's owner, Otfried Hanstein, told Bild the fire broke out when passengers were alighting the ride, which is just seven years old.

"My staff told me that there were no people in the [affected] gondola at the time," Hanstein said.

One witness described to local media how other gondolas were busy with partygoers.

Hanstein said his operators reacted quickly when they saw the flames:

"They sped up the Ferris wheel and then evacuated the other gondolas," he told Bild.

Hanstein could not say how many people were in the other gondolas when the fire broke out.

Both pods were destroyed in the fire, according to a DPA reporter at the scene.

The fire was brought under control within about 30 minutes, a fire service spokesperson said.

The site was cordoned off and a special investigations team arrived Sunday to begin their probe into the incident.

What is the Highfield Festival?

Highfield, which bills itself as the largest independent rock festival, attracts around 35,000 visitors every summer.

The event, which has been running since 1998, features a roster of top local and international artists.

This year's lineup included The Kooks, Flogging Molly and Rise Against. The band Macklemore was expected to headline on Sunday.

Organizers said the event would proceed as planned and thanked partygoers for not panicking as the fire raged.

"You acted exemplary and enabled us and all the emergency services to bring the situation under control as quickly as possible," a post from the festival organizers on Facebook said.

mm/lo (AP, dpa)