AN ENVIRONMENTAL health department have launched an investigation into a horrific bouncy castle incident at the weekend.

An official in the Scarborough Borough Council department said he had "never seen a case as serious before".

The accident happened at a Christening at White House Hotel, in Whitby, North Yorkshire on Sunday.

Due to high winds a bouncy castle, hired for the event, came loose from its tethers and was lifted into the air, taking young children with it.

The three local children, all under 10, sustained injuries and one boy was taken by air ambulance to the James Cook University Hospital.

Steve Reynolds, Environment Manager at in Scarborough Borough Council’s environmental health department said: "This is a first for us - in my thirty years here we’ve never had anything like this, it’s a really rare occurrence.

"An emergency call-out was made on Sunday evening where we recovered the inflatable - I don’t want to say anything about the incident as it’s early days, but our team are examining the bouncy castle for clues as to why it happened right now," he said.

An eye-witness report from the father of Koby Dakin, seven, who suffered serious injuries, said the it was the wind that was the main factor.

He said he saw the bouncy castle being lifted into the air, spun around, and then be blown across the road where it was caught in a telegraph pole.

His son was treated for a broken leg, two arm fractures, a broken rib, a punctured lung and head trauma and was taken by air ambulance to James Cook University Hospital - his condition is said to be "improving".

A girl, also seven, suffered head injuries and concussion and boy aged nine sustained a leg injury - they were taken to Scarborough District Hospital with but have since been discharged.