Park officials at the Disneyland Paris facility in the Chessy suburb of the French capital have revealed that the dead body of an employee was discovered in ‘Phantom Manor’, the park’s haunted house attraction, shortly before it was opened to the public on Saturday morning.
The maintenance worker, who had been sent to ‘Phantom Manor’ to deal with a defective lighting system, was found unconscious by his colleagues, before medical staffed pronounced him dead at 10am.
His death appears to be been the result of an accident, with the initial inquiry into what happened claiming he has been electrocuted. The 45-year-old father had worked in Disneyland Paris since 2002.
“We are sending all our thoughts to his family and friends,” a spokesperson for the park’s management said, adding that the entire workforce of 15,000 employees had been “profoundly saddened” by the tragedy.
The haunted house attraction remained closed for the rest of the day to park visitors, with the weekend experiencing the first rush of patrons in light of school holidays in France taking place this week. The Disneyland Paris site welcomes on average 15m visitors every year.
The recent death is not the only fatal accident to have taken place in the park; in October, 2010, a sub-contracted cleaner drowned after the ‘It’s a Small World’ boat he had been cleaning was mistakenly turned on.
