Jubilee Fireworks Terror

As the day's full programme of music and entertainment was coming to an end, a small section of the 15,000 strong crowd was plunged from jubilation to terror.

One man sustained facial injuries and a teenager was hit in the leg, another teenager's arm was hurt at the jubilee celebrations on Tuesday night.

One eye witness said: "It looked like a fireball was coming towards us, we were terrified, you just don't expect that sort of thing to happen."

He described seeing the firework shoot straight into the crowd horizontally about two or three feet from the ground, he could hear screams from people standing close by and his young son was very shaken up.

Arun Council director of services Colin Rogers said: "It was fortunate that no-one was more seriously hurt and we will be launching a thorough investigation into this incident."

The eye witness also told The Littlehampton Gazette that a member of the pyrotechnic team admitted the incident was caused by a box of fireworks exploding on the ground.

But Mr Rogers said he had no recollection of this happening.

The firework display was stopped for about 10 minutes while medical and pyrotechnics staff checked the casulties.

Other eye witnesses said they had seen other fireworks firing off in horizontal directions into the crowd and into the sea, and said they felt something was not quite right.

Arun District Council commissioned pyrotechnics company Selstar to carry out the firework display and have always taken a tough stance on health and safety issues at similar events.

They are anxious not to put people off attending future firework displays and said every step was being taken to ensure it never happened again.