52-year-old employee dies after accident on free-fall tower at Munich Oktoberfest

A 52-year-old employee of an attraction at the Munich Oktoberfest amusement park died this Monday (21) as a result of serious injuries suffered during an accident with the ride.

The incident occurred shortly before 10pm (local time) at the Hangover free-fall tower, an attraction in which visitors quickly plummet from a height of around 80 meters in a gondola.

The victim was of Serbian nationality and worked as a security guard at the attraction, Bild newspaper reported. According to the police's initial findings, the man was on the ground, directly in the risk area, when the free-fall tower's gondola descended at high speed. He was hit and was even pressed by the gondola.

The security guard was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, where he later died.

It is still not clear why the employee was, during the attraction's operation, in an area where he should not have been, the police reported on the night of the accident, which remains under investigation.

This was the second incident involving an Oktoberfest attraction this year. On a rotating carousel that was stopped due to technical failure, passengers had to remain upside down for approximately two minutes on Saturday night, until they were removed from their seats.

The cause of the problem was most likely a faulty sensor. The technical inspection body TÜV re-examined the toy, which was released for operation later that night.

The 191st edition of Oktoberfest began on Saturday morning (19) and continues until October 4. Every year, more than 6 million visitors take part in the famous popular festival. Around 600 police officers and hundreds of security agents work at the event.