Two teenagers deliberately interfered with a chain swing ride at a county fair in Georgia, causing the attraction to become unstable and injuring three other riders, police said. The frightening incident unfolded Saturday at the Columbia County Fall Fair in Grovetown, as reported by The New York Post.

The teenagers, both 13, were seen holding onto each other while flying through the air in separate swings, according to witness video cited by local station WRDW. Their actions caused the ride to lose control as families watched from below.

The attraction used individual swings suspended by chains, but the trouble began when the two teenagers grabbed each other while the ride was moving. Authorities said the teenagers had already been warned not to do that before the collision occurred.

Video from the fair captured the terrifying moment the ride became unstable. The footage, which was provided to WRDW, showed swings being launched into one another while frightened riders screamed.

Two 13-year-olds charged after causing a swing ride to lose control, leaving 3 people injured. The pair kept holding hands while the ride was in motion despite being warned not to twist their swings together. They didn’t listen. https://t.co/2dByr466Em

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Kristen Murphy, a mother whose children were riding the attraction at the time, recorded the dangerous scene. She quickly realized something was wrong and rushed to help get her own teenagers safely off the ride.

“This ride has to stop,” Murphy said, thinking as the scary scene unfolded. “My kids are on it. Something’s happening. I need to get to them.”

Murphy’s husband moved toward the ride’s control panel as the swings continued colliding. He rushed to stop the attraction, while other parents joined the effort to bring the machine to a halt.

The parents were ultimately able to stop the ride and reach the children and other passengers. Once Murphy got to her own children, she said the seriousness of the injuries became apparent.

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“Once we did get it stopped and I was able to get to my kids, that’s when we noticed that there were some pretty severe injuries,” she said.

One woman suffered injuries after her swing collided with another swing, according to authorities. An ambulance transported her to a hospital following the incident.

Two children also received treatment for minor injuries. Authorities did not provide additional details about the three injured riders or the woman’s condition after she was taken to the hospital.

The Columbia County Sheriff’s Office said the two teenagers responsible for the disruption had been told not to grab each other before the crash. Despite that warning, witness video showed them holding onto one another while the ride was operating.

That conduct caused the chain swing attraction to become unstable, police said. The resulting chaos sent swings crashing together as riders remained suspended in the moving attraction.

Local law enforcement charged both teenagers after the incident. Police allowed them to leave the fair with their parents after the charges were filed.

Authorities did not identify the specific charges facing the teenagers. Police also did not provide further information about how the case would proceed.

The incident transformed a county fair ride into a frightening scene for riders and parents. Murphy’s video documented the moment the attraction lost control and the urgent effort by adults to stop it.

The most serious reported injury involved the woman whose swing collided with another. The two children were treated for injuries that authorities described as minor, bringing the total number of injured riders to three.

What began with two teenagers ignoring a warning ended with an ambulance trip, injured children and law enforcement charges. The two 13-year-olds were eventually released to their parents, while the exact nature of their charges remained unclear.

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