Investigators say debris hit 56-year-old, who was pronounced dead at scene in Knoxville

This article is more than 10 months old

This article is more than 10 months old

A woman in Iowa has died after she was hit by debris from an explosion at a gender-reveal party.

The sheriff’s office in Marion county, Iowa, said the 56-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene at a home in the city of Knoxville.

Parties at which parents-to-be reveal the gender of their unborn child to friends and relatives, often with some kind of stunt, have increased in popularity in the last decade, particularly in the US.

Investigators determined that an explosion during the gender-reveal announcement at around 4pm on Saturday had caused the woman’s death. No other details about the explosion were available. The victim’s name has not yet been released.

One of the pioneers of the gender-reveal movement said in July that it was time to “re-evaluate” the practice and that her own daughter had begun to explore her gender and defy gender norms.

Jenna Karvunidis, 39, explained that in 2008 she had baked a cake with pink icing inside to reveal the gender of her daughter to her friends and family, never realising that her concept would be replicated and taken to extremes by others.

In April 2017 an off-duty US border patrol agent, Dennis Dickey, caused $8m of damage to 19,000 hectares (47,000 acres) of Arizona forest when he shot at a target full of blue-coloured explosive as a means of announcing the gender of his unborn child.

Other gender-reveal stunts have included an alligator being fed a watermelon filled with blue dye that splattered as it bit it.

In July police in Queensland, Australia, released footage of a father-to-be whose attempt to send blue smoke from his car tyres forced the driver and passenger out of the car as a fire spread.