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3-year-old hurt after gravestone falls on her in Somersworth
SOMERSWORTH – While investigators are still trying to determine what happened, a 3-year-old was transported to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries after a 500-pound gravestone fell on her Wednesday morning.
Police, firefighters and emergency personnel responded at 10:41 a.m. after receiving a report that the girl was trapped under a gravestone in Forest Glade Cemetery near Maple Street, according to Fire Lt. Kenneth Vincent.
Vincent said the child was walking in the cemetery with a caretaker and a few other children when the incident occurred.
“I've heard of them being knocked over, but it's usually a result of vandalism,” Vincent said, adding this was not a case of vandalism.
“It certainly doesn't happen every day, but it isn't unbelievable,” Vincent said, adding in his 28-year tenure, he's never heard of anything like this happening in Somersworth.
“It was an old gravestone,” Vincent said, adding it took four people to lift the grave marker, which somehow toppled over, to free the girl.
As a precaution, Vincent said ambulance crews from American Medical Response transported her to Wentworth Douglass Hospital in Dover.
Vincent said investigators do not know if the girl was climbing onto the gravestone as they are still trying to piece together what happened.
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