It was supposed to be a day of celebration, yet this Sunday afternoon four people were injured during the lifting of a menhir in Pen ar Roz near Carhaix.
500 people gathered to erect the first monolith of what is to become the Breton Stonehenge, at the call of the collective StoneBreizh. As 200 volunteers fired the stone block of 8.20 m on a ramp, for its “lifting”, a chain suddenly broke.
“A sharp noise, like a gunshot”
It all started well though. A good-natured atmosphere to the tunes of Asterix and Obelix. And then suddenly, the chain that pulled the loose menhir. “It sounded like a gunshot”, exclaims one of the spectators. Dozens of volunteers fall. To properly imagine the scene, you have to imagine a rubber band stretched to the maximum, held by a menhir of almost 30 tons, that we would have suddenly let go.
And above all, part of the chain and a hook are transformed into projectiles and hit several people head-on. The chain first cuts a man in the back who was guiding the volunteers in their effort before injuring three other people are also affected, including one in the head. “I turned around and saw one of the hooks at my wife’s feet”says one of the volunteers.
The four injured are evacuated in relative emergency by the firefighters at the Carhaix hospital center. A balance sheet that could have been much heavier. many children, sometimes very young, were the volunteers. They had been advised to position themselves in the back for more safety, only a few minutes before the accident.
Gendarmes from the Carhaix brigade immediately went to the scene to make the first observations and take the testimonies. An investigation is open to understand what happened.