By Rod Nickel and Ismail Shakil
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (Reuters) -A group of school children fell down from about a 5-meter high structure during a field trip on Wednesday in the western Canadian city of Winnipeg but avoided serious injuries in an incident that officials said could have been much worse.
Children from Winnipeg's St. John's-Ravenscourt School were visiting the historic Fort Gibraltar when the fall happened, sending 16 children and an adult to hospital.
The children were between 10 and 11 years old and suffered non-life threatening injuries, said Dr. Karen Gripp of the Winnipeg Children's Hospital in a televised briefing.
One patient was being kept in hospital for observation, while the rest either had been or will be discharged today, Gripp said.
"It could have been so, so much worse," she said. "Fortunately, or serendipitously, it was not very busy and we were all caught up at the time, so we had empty rooms, we had nursing staff available."
Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service official Michelle Bessas said at the briefing the children fell from a structure at Whittier Park, where the fort is located, but the reason for the fall was not yet clear.
The structure was approximately 16 to 18 feet tall, she said, adding that paramedics assessed 28 patients, 17 of which were transported to hospital.
"Our thoughts go out to all the students, teachers, and families of St. John's Ravenscourt affected by today's terrible accident at Fort Gibraltar," Manitoba Premier Heather Stefanson said on Twitter.
Fort Gibraltar, in the province of Manitoba, is one of over 1,000 protected national historic sites in Canada.
(Reporting by Ismail Shakil in Ottawa; Editing by David Holmes and Lisa Shumaker)
