Ardent Leisure (AAD) shares face a pummelling this morning after the deaths of four people at the company’s Dreamworld theme park on the Gold Coast yesterday.
The incident at the country’s biggest park is now being investigated by police and happened after 3pm yesterday, Sydney time.
That allowed for a brief period of trading on the ASX and Ardent shares fell nearly 8% in the last few minutes of the session to end at $2.35. That was the lowest since August.
Police said the victims became trapped on a conveyor belt at the theme park after a raft they were in flipped on the Thunder River Rapids ride yesterday afternoon.
The raft collided with another raft on the conveyor system before flipping.
Six people were in the raft at the time of the accident and Police confirmed four adults had died in the incident.
"Dreamworld is working as quickly as possible to establish the facts around the incident and is working closely with emergency authorities and police to do this," a statement by the theme park said.
"Dreamworld’s focus and priority is with the families of those involved in this tragedy and will be providing an update to the public as soon as information becomes available."
The Thunder River Rapids Ride is currently Australia’s only river rapids ride and opened in December 1986.
Media reports say Dreamworld’s Rocky Hollow Log Ride was shut down in April this year when a man fell from the ride and nearly drowned.
