New Town: Siblings Riyan and Manisha Nayak were happy as any child would be climbing up and down an inflatable Mickey Mouse slide when their Sunday outing at Eco Park went horribly wrong.

Riyan, 3, was on life support at Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals on Monday. Manisha, 8, was in the paediatric intensive care unit.

They were among at least eight children who suffered moderate to major injuries when a gust of squally wind toppled the inflatable slide, hurling them all to the ground.

"Everything happened in a flash. The wind lashed the inflatable slide and the next thing I knew, my son was lying on the walkway and my daughter a few feet away from him," the kids' father, Subrata Kumar Nayak, recounted to Metro.

The Nayaks are from Odisha and they moved to Calcutta barely two months ago, one of Subrata's colleagues said.

Subrata works for an IT company that has an office in Sector V.

Urban development minister Firhad Hakim announced on Monday that all adventure activities and rides at Eco Park would remain suspended till the completion of an inquiry into the accident.

Besides the Nayak siblings, Urvi Sharma, 9, Yatika Sharma, 7, and Swarnima Koushal, 7, are being treated for various injuries at Apollo. Urvi requires surgery to repair a fractured femur bone, a doctor said.

Swarnima, a student of Class II at Narayana School in New Town, was at Eco Park with her family and trying out the Mickey Mouse slide when the thunderstorm struck with a peak wind speed of 85kmph.

"Sunday was quite windy but we couldn't have imagined something like this would happen. I was too stunned to react for a few seconds after that thing just toppled over," Swarnima's father Santosh Kumar Koushal said.

Ileana Chakraborty, a student of Class II at Calcutta International School, and Ipshita Biswas, a Class IV girl at Christ Church School, suffered less serious injuries than the rest. "I won't ever play on something like that," Ileana, who lives at Greenwood Estate in New Town, said.

Her mother Nandini said it was "plain luck" that her daughter escaped a major injury. "Ileana was on the lowermost deck and so got away with bruises on her cheek and abrasions on her leg. She landed on the grass."

Ipshita's father Gobinda, who owns a plywood shop in Dum Dum, said he had taken his daughter and son Gourab, a nursery student, to Eco Park to keep a promise. "We had reached the park at 5pm. Ipshita and Gourab were both on the slide when the wind knocked it over like it was a balloon," he said.

Ipshita needed four stitches to close a cut on her lower lip. Gourab escaped injury because the grass cushioned his fall.

Inflatable slides and trampolines are common at parks, fairs and events. Hidco officials said a private operator had rented space to create the play area where the slide was knocked over.

Several parents said the slide might not have toppled had it been tethered to something. "We did not see any rope," Gobinda said.

Amit Javalgi, the deputy commissioner (headquarters) of Bidhannagar City Police, said a circular had been issued to all amusement parks under the jurisdiction of the commissionerate to put safety first. "We have asked them to ensure that all sporting and adventure activities are suspended during inclement weather and also when storms and squalls are forecast. Safety of all visitors, irrespective of age, should come first."

Eco Park and Nicco Park are both under the jurisdiction of the Bidhannagar commissionerate.