AN eight-year-old girl flung from a Royal Adelaide Show ride on Friday has died.

The girl fell at least 10m from a ride and suffered critical injuries at about 12.25pm.

She was rushed to the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in a critical condition but died a short time later.

The girl was flung from the Airmaxx 360 ride, a rotating ride with multiple arms that rapidly spin and move up and down.

The ride had a height limit understood to be 140cm but no weight or age restriction.

Safework SA has announced the ride will be closed for the remainder of the Show.

Witness Malinda Dunwoodie, 17, was considering going on the Airmaxx 360 when she saw the tragedy unfold.

She said the safety harness was still down but it looked as if the girl had slipped out of her seat.

“She was hanging by her legs off the ride, trying to block herself. She went flying through the air about 10-15m up in the air and I started sprinting towards her,” Ms Dunwoodie said.

“I was shaking so much, she looked like a doll flying through the air.

“It was so shocking — it was like a horror movie. I didn’t see her land in the crowd but when I made it over to her I couldn’t see her eyes moving. Everyone was screaming.”

Royal Adelaide Show chief executive John Rothwell and SA Police made a statement at 3pm.

“Our thoughts are definitely with the family at this time. We have a current investigation going on for the Coroner, we are working with SafeWork SA with support from the Royal Show Society,” said Chief Inspector Dennis Lock.

“I would like to thank all the emergency services people, Royal Show assistants and the numerous members of the public that quickly came to the aid of the girl.”

Mr Rothwell, holding back tears, said that the society was “extremely upset by the situation and we express our sincere condolences to the family”.

“As a parent I can only imagine the grief the family must be feeling,” he said.

He said the ride, which was new to Adelaide this year, had previously operated in Sydney at Easter and Brisbane a few weeks ago without incident.

“All rides at the show must pass a national compliance audit prior to the show opening and undergo daily checks by the operators,” he said.

He said he had not yet made contact with the family of the girl because it was too early but would do so in due course.

Brian Russell, from Safework SA, said no complaints about the ride had been made before today.

He said the investigation would look into whether ride operators complied with safety and legal obligations, but no compliance breaches were detected when the ride was inspected before the Show.

Brandon Taylor, 16, was one of the first witnesses on the scene.

“We just saw someone lying on the ground,” he said.

“She looked like she was in a pretty critical condition. I don’t want to go on that ride now.”

Destiny Donnellan, 16, said she turned around and all she could see was “people crowding around and all the ambulances”.

“I probably would have gone on it (the ride) but not now seeing what’s happened,” she said.

Another witness, who did not want to give her name, said she saw the incident unfold while on a neighbouring ride.

“I was looking back and I could see someone lying on the ground and people with towels,” she said.

“It happened so quickly. One second it was fine and the next it was not.”

Security has cleared a large crowd of onlookers and police are interviewing Show operators.

It’s not the first time the Royal Show has been marred by a serious accident.

On September 2, 2000, a section of the Spin Dragon ride came loose and fell, bounced off the ride’s base platform and crashed into a queue of people, injuring 37.

The injured people launched a class action lawsuit and in 2006 the District Court was told that the ride’s broken bolts had been in danger of snapping “for years”.

The court heard 44 of the 48 bolts connecting the gondola to rotating metal arms broke due to fatigue.

The remaining four were “like stretched pieces of plasticine” and gave way to the tremendous weight exerted upon them.

Last year, three people were injured by a steer — a castrated bull — after it broke free from an enclosure and charged through the Adelaide Showgrounds.

Leon May, a steward at the Show’s Golden Grains Pavillion was the worst-injured of the three.

Mr May, 68, was walking with his wife when he was hit by the rampaging beast, leaving him in hospital with head injuries.

“I didn’t see it until I reckon it was probably less than two metres from me,” Mr May said from his hospital bed.

“It jumped and hit me in the chest with its head — it really sent me flying and I lobbed on my right side.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Emergency services initially incorrectly reported that the girl was 15 years old. We corrected the girl’s age to eight in our coverage as soon as it was confirmed by police.