Fair in Germany ends in tragedy after British serviceman's daughter becomes entangled in ropes during freak thunderstorm

A five-year-old girl was killed after being carried away entangled in the ropes of a helium balloon ripped from its moorings during a violent thunderstorm.

The child, daughter of a British serviceman and his German wife, was at a summer fair at the British army's German headquarters in Rheindahlen on Sunday afternoon.

Her body was found two hours later near where the balloon came down, in a farmyard 43 miles from the base. Local police said she may have been conscious during the flight. The rope wrapped itself around her arm, according to the police chief, Rainer Rostek, who had been in the emergency control room. "The girl was caught just by her arm. We suspect that she was killed by the [landing] impact."

The balloon was reported last night to have hit a power line. It was intended to take passengers up into the air for a bird's eye view, as part of a range of family entertainments at the International Day, an annual fair that attracts visitors from across Germany.

An army spokeswoman, Lieutenant-Colonel Helen Wildman, said the weather took a sharp turn for the worse after the festival had been open an hour. "The gates had been opened at 12 o'clock and we already had more than 3,000 visitors. We had air displays with parachutists. The weather was beautiful. Suddenly, from nowhere, it changed.

"There was an enormous storm with thunder and lightning, huge hailstones and very, very strong winds. These winds swept across the showground causing devastation, lifting up tents and so on.

"The balloon was taking people up for rides. It goes up, and a tethered rope gets pulled down again, but nobody had yet taken a ride."

The balloon, belonging to the Royal Artillery, was teth ered by seven ropes, including one attached to a car. "The wind was so strong it broke all of these anchors, and swept the balloon away. As the ropes tangled underneath it, one of them caught hold of the little girl and wrapped itself around her and took her away," she said.

People ran for shelter as tents and furniture were thrown about and rain pelted down. In the chaos, witnesses were confused. Mark Ireland, a car salesman on a stand at the fair, said: "It started raining a little and then a black cloud appeared over the fair.

"The wind got up and within 20 or 30 seconds it was approaching 100mph, knocking down everything in its path. All of a sudden this yellow balloon went past. There was something hanging from it.

"At first I thought it was a person who had attempted to grab the balloon to stop it leaving its bearings. But then I thought it couldn't be - nobody would do that - and I presumed it was a dummy.

"Some kids started crying and saying there was a body attached to the balloon, but somebody else said 'no, it was a dummy'."

German police considered sending up a helicopter, but a rescue was thought impossible. Mr Rostek said: "First of all the weather was very bad, the helicopter could not take off. If it could take off, at best the pilot could fly alongside and see which direction the balloon was flying in. Anything else is just James Bond."

The freak weather passed within minutes and the sun came out again.

The child's body was found a short distance away from the wreckage of the balloon in a farmyard in Hamminkeln, near the Dutch border. She has yet to be formally identified. A postmortem examination is due and the British and German authorities have begun a joint investigation.

Her father works at British headquarters in Rheindahlen near Mönchengladbach.

The rest of the show, due to have continued yesterday, a bank holiday in Germany, was cancelled.

Brigadier Tim Inshaw, the Rhine garrison commander, described the death as the consequence of a "cruel and almost unbelievable" series of events. "We are profoundly shocked and deeply saddened. We can only imagine what the girl's parents must be going through. They are in our thoughts and prayers."

Six other people at the show suffered injuries in the chaos, including one taken to hospital with a broken leg.

The forecast had been for showers that afternoon, Lt-Col Wildman said: "But we were expecting nothing like this."

The showground was fenced off yesterday. Mourners had tied bouquets and teddy bears to the fencing. Among the offerings was a note reading: "Although we didn't know you, you are forever one of God's little angels now."

The spot where the balloon had been anchored was cordoned off with red and white tape, to which a bouquet of yellow and white flowers had been attached.

The girl was one of at least 12 people killed by storms in Germany at the weekend. These included a 59-year-old motorist killed by a falling tree and a paraglider who crashed and died when winds blew him off course.