| The victims — a woman and a man both aged 19 — were understood to have been caught in a fireball in their tent at the Tartan Heart Festival at Belladrum, near Inverness, around 10.30am today.
Festivalgoers rushed to pour water on their wounds while a Red Cross team was summoned for help.
The duo were given emergency treatment before the male victim was flown to Raigmore Hospital, in Inverness, by helicopter with facial, arm and leg burns, the ambulance service said.
The woman was taken to hospital by ambulance. Three other people in the tent suffered minor burns.
Eyewitness Liam Smith said he believed the pair had been badly hurt.
He said, “The girl’s hair was burnt and her face, arms and upper torso were also burned. The boy had burns to his face, arms, upper torso, hands and knees.
“Someone said it was a gas stove that had just leaked (next to a fire in the centre of the tepee) but someone else said the guy was changing the gas canister when it exploded.”
Mr Smith, an advertising rep with the Tele’s sister newspaper The Evening Express, in Aberdeen, added, “I heard a blast and looked over to see smoke coming out of the top of the tepee.
“By the time I got there the two people injured had come out of the tent. Other people around were saying there had been a ball of flame come out of the door of the tent.
“The boy and girl were put on to the ground and people from other tepees rushed off and quickly got organised with water from a nearby standpipe. The Red Cross were mustered and they came and applied emergency first aid.
“They (the injured) had face masks put on and gel applied and the first-aiders were continually asking people to get more water.”
A spokesperson for the festival, which attracts 12,000 people, said the incident was now in the hands of Northern Constabulary.
A police spokeswoman said they and the fire service were investigating. |
