A 52-year-old security guard died after being struck and crushed by the descending gondola of a free-fall ride at Oktoberfest in Munich, just days into the world-famous festival's 191st edition.
The guard, a Serbian national, had entered a restricted area beneath the 260-foot "Hangover" attraction shortly before 10 p.m. Monday when the ride's gondola came down on top of him, The Sun reported. Emergency crews rushed to the scene and transported him to a Munich hospital, where he later died.
Munich police sealed off the area around the ride and launched a criminal investigation into how the fatal incident unfolded. Officers appealed for witnesses and asked anyone who captured the scene on camera to come forward. Police said none of the passengers aboard the attraction at the time were in danger.
Munich Mayor Dominik Krause issued a statement after the guard's death.
"My thoughts are with the family of the deceased man and the employees of the amusement ride. I thank the emergency services for their quick intervention."
Krause did not address the status of the ride or the broader investigation. Police have not disclosed why the guard entered the restricted zone beneath the attraction, and no suspects or specific charges have been publicly identified.
A crisis intervention team was deployed to offer support to witnesses who saw the fatal accident, a grim scene at a festival built around beer, brass bands, and carnival rides.
Monday's fatal crushing was not the only ride malfunction to mar Oktoberfest's opening weekend. Two days earlier, roughly 40 riders were left dangling upside down in the air after the "Predator" attraction suddenly stopped. Passengers hung suspended for about seven minutes before they could get off. A handful reported mild dizziness and circulation problems. Emergency services responded, but riders had already disembarked by the time crews arrived.
The back-to-back incidents raise obvious questions about ride safety oversight at an event that draws more than six million visitors over its 16-day run, which is scheduled to continue through October 4. Around 600 police officers and hundreds of additional security workers are deployed across the festival grounds, a security footprint that has grown sharply in recent years.
This year's Oktoberfest opened under the tightest security measures in the festival's history. Organizers installed metal detectors at entry points for the first time ever, a direct response to the deadly knife attack last August in Solingen, Germany, where a 26-year-old Syrian asylum-seeker killed three people and wounded eight. ISIS claimed responsibility for that attack. The assailant had previously avoided deportation to Bulgaria, according to AP News.
The security apparatus includes more than 2,000 security staff, over 50 cameras, and full fencing of the festival grounds. Munich's previous mayor, Dieter Reiter, acknowledged the threat environment when the measures were announced.
"We have had to react to the fact that attacks with knives have increased in recent weeks and months."
Peter Neumann, a professor of security studies at King's College London, put it more bluntly when Fox News covered the festival's opening: Oktoberfest is "an iconic event and this is exactly the kind of event that they'd want to strike."
Yet for all the focus on external threats, knife attacks, terrorism, crowd violence, the first fatality of this year's festival came from within the grounds themselves, involving a worker and a ride that was supposed to be secured.
Investigators have not said who operates or owns the "Hangover" ride. They have not disclosed whether the ride was carrying passengers at the exact moment the guard entered the restricted zone, or whether any ride staff were present in the area at the time. The current operational status of the attraction remains unclear.
The guard's name has not been released. His family has not spoken publicly. What motivated a 52-year-old security worker to enter a restricted zone beneath a 260-foot free-fall ride, and whether anyone failed to stop him or warn him, is the central question Munich's criminal investigators now face.
Six million people trust that the rides, the security, and the oversight at the world's largest folk festival are up to the job. Two ride failures in three days, one of them fatal, suggest that trust deserves a hard second look.
