The circumstances of the accident are still unclear.
But the toll is already heavy.
On Tuesday, 17 people, including 15 children, were injured in a stampede with ponies near Vitré, in Ille-et-Vilaine.
Three children were more seriously affected and were transported in absolute urgency by SAMU helicopters from Ille-et-Vilaine and Maine-et-Loire.
The accident occurred at 8:50 p.m. in the town of Saint-M'Hervé, at a place called La Haute Hairie, where a summer camp is hosted.
Twenty-six children aged 9 to 13 were staying there.
Asked, the Rennes prosecutor's office explains that "according to the first of the investigation", the accident would have occurred when the children and their two companions were taking the ponies to the field.
About twenty animals were present.
“On the way, one of the ponies, probably the lead one, turned around for an undetermined reason, followed by others.
In their escape, the animals jostled and overturned the group, ”explains prosecutor Philippe Astruc.
Three children in serious condition
The seventeen injured were evacuated to hospitals in Rennes, Fougères, Vitré, Cesson-Sévigné and Saint-Grégoire.
At midnight, the three children in absolute emergency were still in care at the South Hospital, in Rennes.
The other 14 victims were in relative emergency.
“The families have been notified by the equestrian center and the gendarmerie”, specifies the prosecutor.
The investigation was entrusted by the Rennes prosecutor's office to the research brigade of the Vitré gendarmerie.
A medico-psychological emergency unit has been set up.
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Accident
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Child
Summer holidays
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