A boy of six has been killed and 28 others - mostly children - were injured after a miniature train overturned in an amusement park.
Families were cooking barbecues and relaxing in the sun when the train packed with five- to ten-year-olds and their parents suddenly came off its rails and turned a peaceful Spring Saturday into a scene of horror.
Dozens of bodies were thrown onto the grass at Spartanburg park in Charleston, South Carolina, which turned into a makeshift hospital as the survivors huddled together to comfort one another until doctors arrived to treat them.
Benjamin Easler, six, who was on the train, was fatally injured and was taken to hospital but died.
His father, Dr Dwight Easler, a local pastor, was also on board, as was his pregnant mother Tabitha and his two brothers.
Mr Easler suffered cuts and broken bones but Mrs Easler’s baby appears unharmed. The brothers suffered broken arms.
Police have now begun an investigation into the crash and will be looking into the possibility that the train was sabotaged or that something had been deliberately left on the tracks.
Spartanburg County Councilman David Britt, whose district includes the park, said the state Department of Labour, Licensing and Regulation inspected the ride Wednesday.
'It's tragic,' Britt said. 'It's a terrible nightmare.
'When you see the accident scene, it's amazing anybody survived, because the train turned over and those kids were raked across the rocks.'
Tributes also began pouring in for the Easler family on the Facebook page of the Corinth Baptish Church in Gaffney where Dr Easler is the pastor.
Worshippor Brenda Dianne Bennett wrote: ‘My heart aches for the pain this tragic accident has brought to this church family.
‘Please God put Your Arms around These people and help them to understand.’
Teresa Loving added: ‘I am praying for your whole church family...this is a sad day for our community.
‘We don't always understand why some things happen to us...but God knows.’
The accident happened about 1pm on Saturday an hour after the train had opened on its first day of the season.
The tracks of the miniature train circle the park's playground area and reach speeds of around 10mph. It has been in operation since 1953 with no major incidents.
Mother Jackie Blackwell got a call from her 10-year-old daughter Samantha who had been on the train to say that the wheels had got ‘stuck’.
‘All I could hear was screaming, screaming,’ she told the Spartanburg Herald-Journal.
‘It just scared us. We're lucky, very lucky.’
Marlene Sellers told the paper she had just got off the train with her granddaughters aged four and six when it went off the track.
‘I never in my life seen such a thing,’ she said, fighting back the tears.
‘I've never seen anything so massive or shocking.’
Another man said: ‘I didn't see any fire, I didn't smell no smoke.
'Then someone told me, "If you got any grandbabies at the park, get down there. The train done went down."'
Two helicopters were called in to fly the wounded to hospital whilst others were taken there by ambulance.
At one point an emergency worker was seen running across a field carrying a barefoot girl in his arms.
Another boy was heard screaming as he was put in a neck brace and carried away on a stretcher with cuts on his face.
It is thought that some of the other children and adults also suffered serious injuries but not other details were available.
The driver was among the survivors.
Friends revealed that Dr Easler and wife Tabitha have not to have told their other two sons yet that their brother has died.
Adding to the anxiety Mrs Easler was due to have her baby shower the day after the crash happened. The event has been postponed.
Pastor Donnie Padgett, the director of missions for the Broad River Baptist Association, said he met with Dr Easler who told him he is preparing to break the bad news to his boys.
‘Dr Easler told me that sometimes it's hard for adults to understand, so it will certainly be difficult for children to understand and comprehend,’ Pastor Padgett said.
About 60 people from local churches throughout gathered late on Saturday at Central Baptist Church to pay tribute to Benjamin Easler, the first of many expected memorial services.
As the investigation into the horror began, pictures of the the mangled wreckage showed huge chunks of metal lying around as if the train had been split in two.
Spartanburg Police Captain Art Littlejohn said the train and tracks had been inspected on Wednesday with no sign of any problems.
‘The train derailed and came off the tracks,’ he said. ‘It overturned, and the people were thrown from the train.’
Cleveland Park is maintained and operated by Spartanburg County and its Highway Patrol Multi-disciplinary Accident Investigation Team, which normally investigated traffic accidents, is looking into what happened.
Spartanbury County Public Safety Director Tony Fisher said one of the train passengers shot a video of the crash which would be used in the investigation.
‘It is a very horrific incident,’ he said. ‘We're a long way from determining if there was anything criminal, and it will take a long time to complete the technical aspects of the investigation.’
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