Several children injured on school trip after huge branch falls from tree in Polish gorge
Several children have been injured after a large branch broke from a tree and fell on a group of 47 people in Poland.
Polish police said emergency services were called to Korzeniowy Gorge at around 10am on Thursday.
The group hit by the branch included 43 children aged 11 to 12 and their four caregivers who were on a school trip from the country's capital Warsaw.
Local firefighters said 13 people are injured, including three who are seriously hurt. The police force said two children and a group caregiver have been transported to hospital.
One child was taken to hospital via helicopter, and the other by ambulance. Some were treated on the scene.
Marcin Babula, duty officer for Lublin firefighters, told Polish news agency PAP that those who were seriously injured had likely suffered broken limbs, while ten people had lighter injuries.
Policja Puławska said in a statement: 'Today, at about 10:08 a.m. in the Korzeni Gorge on Doły Street in Kazimierz Dolny, a branch which broke off from a tree fell on a group of 47 people from Warsaw (43 children aged 11-12) and their 4 carers.
'Rescue operations are underway at the scene, one child was transported by LPR helicopter to a hospital in Lublin, two by ambulance to a hospital in Puławy, the remaining people, including caregivers, are being helped on the spot.'
Korzeniowy Dol Gorge is a 400m long and several metre deep gorge in Kazimierz Dolny, a historic town in eastern Poland.
It is described as as a 'fairy-tale' and 'Tolkien' landscape, attracting tourists from all over the country. It takes about 30 minutes to cross the ravine, according to local tourist sites.
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Times
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My hack for a family hiking holiday? Take the ski lifts in the Swiss Alps
A week before our hiking holiday in the Swiss Alps, I realised we might have a problem. We'd driven out into the Kentish countryside for a short walk — barely a stroll — through dappled woodlands and across a sunny meadow, as a test run of attire and attitudes. The scene couldn't have been prettier, the temperature more pleasant, the snacks more bountiful, but barely 15 minutes in: mutiny. 'We hate walking!' my children erupted. 'We're too tired! Can we go back now, this is horrible!' Their dad and I exchanged looks, and reached for the Mentos (nothing hastens pace like sweet bribery). This bucolic romp was nothing compared with what we had planned for the following week's summer holiday. We were headed for the Swiss Alps, for a self-guided, multiday hike, carrying all our kit, taking in high mountains up to almost 3,000m, with no chance of pressing pause as we'd be moving on each day to a different hotel in the next valley. 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That our first stay, the Lenzerhorn hotel, had an indoor pool meant the children — Heidi, ten, and Hamish, eight — were on board with the holiday from the off, and didn't complain about putting on their hiking boots next morning as we set out past chic boutiques selling designer skiwear and elegant leather boots to ride the PostBus (the service that links even the remotest Swiss villages) a mile along the teal-green Heidsee lake to the Rothorn Bahn cable car. Among dirt-spattered mountainbikers in bulky body armour, here for the bike parks and trails that weave down the mountainsides, we hopped aboard the gondola and watched them from above as we swung up into wispy cloud, until rows of icy peaks and turquoise lakes spread before us. From the bare-rock crest of Parpaner Rothorn (2,861m), once a centre of iron ore mining, and from where they say you can spot a thousand other peaks, we would descend northeast to Arosa. 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Down and down, and then another unexpected treat — a mountain inn of dreams, Alpenblick, neat and chic like most in Switzerland, with a sun deck serving joyous slabs of berry tart (£7) and a local unfiltered beer ( I'm not sure the children had even noticed they were on a hiking holiday yet. • Discover our full guide to Switzerland The inn had rooms but our beds awaited down in the valley in Arosa, at a converted TB sanatorium — there were dozens in the area in the early 1900s. Revamped as the cool Faern hotel in December 2022, it featured globular lighting, abstract grey/black art, and brass and matte black fittings in place of medical wipe-down white. Wes Anderson but monochrome was the voguish effect. Alpine walking holidays traditionally mean refuge dorms and basic family-run farmhouses where gingham was the last design feature introduced. I'll never forget, years before, the dishevelled hiker washing his feet in the only bathroom basin at the Theodulhutte above Zermatt, sticking his toes right up inside the tap we needed to use to brush our teeth, or the offer to kip on hay bales in a cobwebby barn in Austria's Wilder Kaiser region for an 'authentic farmstay experience'. These days the Alps have become rich pickings for stylish, contemporary hotels — some upmarket spas, others reinventions of cute wooden chalets made luxe. It was to one of these we were headed next on our shortest walk, three and a half miles, but the greatest climb (555m) — though only after a sweetener of a swim in the Faern's indoor lazy river and a game on its tennis courts to keep the kids onside. • Best hotels in Switzerland They marched out into the sun, revived and, dare I say, even excited for the hike ahead. 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We thought we'd run it for ten years, but here we still are.' The result could not have been more atmospheric, and dinner was a feast: rösti, macaroni prettied up with edible flowers, kid-pleasing burgers, homemade wild berry ice cream (mains from £21), so too breakfast, with homemade bircher and jams. I could've stayed for a week, if not for ever. A storm was forecast for lunchtime the next day, and we knew we needed an early start to get up over the exposed Strelapass before it hit. The path became greyer and more grinding as the clouds built, pouring over the sky like dry ice. The rain came down as we reached the the top at 2,352m, so we sheltered in the Strela Pass Restaurant (more Shithead) before hotfooting it down the other side towards Davos. 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Top tips for taking children to Glastonbury Festival
Music, art, games, fields and "lots of fun". It is no wonder that festivals are an increasingly popular choice for families looking for summer Glastonbury Festival a go-to for adults and children alike, we spoke to three mums about their top tips for keeping all the generations was a popular choice - not the kind you get to the festival in, but the kind you can trundle your children around in, because festivals are very big spaces for little key advice is a healthy dollop of patience for parents and a comfy pair of shoes for, well, everyone. Kelly and her husband, both 41, from Weston-super-Mare, are planning their eighth and 10th visit to Glastonbury Festival this year. Their children, aged six and 10, are looking forward to their fourth said they are "incredibly lucky" to be able to enjoy two days of the festival before the children's grandparents bring them to the site on Saturday means the adults have two days before the children arrive, and the children do not miss said her top tips would be: Be flexible, don't over-plan, relax and most importantly, have fun!"Your festival experience is completely different when you take your children, so don't try and get them to fit into your schedule... go at their pace, explore with them and experience the festival through their eyes." Kelly's other tips include:Put a wristband with your mobile number on your child's wrist (or pick one up from the kidzfield)Create a meeting point in each spaceTake ear defenders for childrenAvoid big acts on small stages as crowds are overwhelming. If you go, stay at the back where there is space to danceSee as much as possible with your children. Kidzfield, Greenpeace, Glastonbury-on-sea, circus and theatreExplore the South-East corner during the day – there's lots of great stuff to see there and you'll avoid the crowds. And hunt down the dragon in the woods by the Stone Circle Melissa, 42, and her partner Ben, 37, live near Woolavington, in Somerset, and are taking their daughter Lexi for the third time this summer and Ben's son for the second has been to almost every Glastonbury Festival since she was 16-years-old, adding it must be about her 20th time going. She said life as a mum can get extremely busy, "so it's nice to wear what you want, be covered in glitter, make friends with strangers and party in a field".Melissa said that like Kelly, they also split Glastonbury week in two - allowing them to set everything up and catch up with friends before going home to pick up "some very excited children" on Saturday, have a shower and head back to the said her top tip for taking babies is a good carrier. "When Lexi was tiny she loved being in the carrier and we could just take her everywhere with us - even dancing," she said a solid pushchair is also a must and that the festival's Little Kids R&R tent is "amazing" as it has facilities for children and babies with bottle cleaning, sterilising and baby changing. Melissa's other tips include:Let the kids explore - there's so much for all the senses with the Kidzfield, circus, theatre and cabaret and "the pier is like another world"Take snacks - lots of snacks! Bubbles for the kids to play with Take a couple of changes of clothing for the days, and layers and onesies for evening A big blanket to put over the pushchair once babies/toddlers are asleep Vicky, 41, from Windsor, Berkshire, took her two daughters to Glastonbury Festival in 2023, when they were aged two and three, and said most people thought they were crazy, "but we had a lot of fun".Although unsuccessful getting tickets this year, she said she would love to take them again, and she is an admin of Glasto Families Facebook and her husband had previously attended the festival about five times and said key to the success of taking their children was hiring a camper van and going on the Tuesday so they were able to settle before a lot of people key piece of advice is to have a good mode of transport to take young kids around the site - with big wheels, "so if it is muddy, it can still manoeuvre well"."An all-terrain buggy or wagon, is vital, especially when you have young children," she said. Vicky's tips include: Be flexible - you never know when children may have a meltdown or need the looTake food, snacks and easy breakfast things - we took porridge pots which means they started the day with full belliesIf you want to see bands, take games, sticker books and colouring books so the children have something for when they get boredAnd, she said, see the festival through your children's eyes. Her four-year-old daughter watched the Foo Fighters and Guns N' Roses and now wants to join the rock band at school and play the drums. "It inspires them to do things they wouldn't do otherwise," Vicky added.
