At just after 5pm on Tuesday (NZ Time) a vacant raft on Dreamworld's Thunder River Rapids ride at the Gold Coast theme park became stuck at the bottom of a conveyor belt, just metres from where people were getting on and off the ride.
The raft immediately following, carrying six people, hit the stuck raft at full speed, mounted it, and tipped over backwards at 90 degrees, spilling the six people on board into the water and into the conveyor belt mechanism.
Of the six people on board only the two children survived. All four adults died.
They were either crushed in the conveyor belt mechanism itself, or trapped in it and drowned.
They are the first fatalities in the 35-year history of the theme park.
Newshub.
