Schoolboy, 14, collapses and dies after falling in the mud during end of term trip to an assault course
- The teenager is got bogged down in a quagmire at Camelot Events in Surrey
- He is believed to have inhaled mud during the school trip and stopped breathing
- The park’s two-hour assault course challenge involved wet slippery obstacles
A schoolboy collapsed and died on a mud assault course today after falling into the quagmire.
The 14-year-old boy is believed to have stopped breathing after collapsing as he and other school pupils battled the muddy assault course in an end-of-term trip to an adventure centre in Surrey.
The tragedy was the second involving a 14-year-old schoolboy in the same county in the last four days, after Salesian School pupil Sam Connor jumped in front of a train at Chertsey station on Monday.
This latest fatality took place at the Camelot Events adventure site in Beare Green, Surrey, where a party of teenage schoolchildren were taking part in an end of school term challenge.
The teenager is understood to have fallen into the mud on an obstacle course (stock photo)
The assault course on which the child died requires going over and through wet and slippery obstacles over a two hour challenge.
A woman working near the mud assault course said that after the boy collapsed and died, shocked classmates were taken to the centre’s clubhouse to be given warming cups of sweet hot chocolate.
She said: ‘I saw about two police cars and three ambulances and it did look quite serious.
‘A few of the kids came over for hot chocolates and things, and I overheard that it was a boy who inhaled lots of mud. He’s done something wrong while on the course and inhaled lots of mud.
‘They were just in a field across the road from us, I could see loads of cars dropping the kids off and picking them up. I believe they were a school party, a school event mud run,’ she added.
Emergency services rushed to the centre after the alarm was raised shorty before 1pm today and other pupils were ushered away.
An air ambulance helicopter was scrambled to the scene along with road ambulances but there was nothing the crews could do to revive the teen, who was declared dead at the scene.
The mud assault course is just a few hundred yards from Henfold Lakes and the area is known to be quite boggy.
The boy’s body was taken to the mortuary at the East Surrey Hospital in Redhill, Surrey, where a post mortem examination will be carried out later by a pathologist to ascertain the exact cause of the youngster’s death.
An inquest was also expected to be carried out later by the Surrey coroner.
Calls to the Camelot Events Centre – which has no connection with the Camelot Lottery organisers – went unanswered today.
Surrey police said that they were preparing a statement to be released after all the child’s relatives had been told of the tragedy.
Camelot Events caters for school parties, hen and stag events, charity events, corporate and birthday events and activities involve archery, an assault course, and survival skills.
The firm is also the home of The Nuts Challenge, which was rated the toughest mud run event 2018 and is next scheduled to take place in six weeks.
Famous action novelist Chris Ryan helped refine the training course, with the site being used by Sky Sports, Reality TV shows such as Only Way is Essex, Britain’s Top Model, Its Your Fault I’m Fat and for various adverts for Nike and Nissan X Trail.