Eight-year-old Luke Fabri walked backwards to avoid getting tickled by a friend during a party in a public venue, when he fell, knocked his elbow against an uncovered plug and got an electrical shock.

People should not be scared to report such cases

“My fingers were burning and so was here,” he said yesterday, tapping his chest.

The incident took place in the video game area of the Eden Superbowl in St George’s Bay on Friday. The management said the plug had been vandalised.

The boy’s mother, Sharon Fabri, was having a coffee in another part of the establishment at the time.

“He was screaming and shouting and we could not calm him down... He got the shock for a few seconds and said he could not see for a while... He was screaming, ‘My fingers are burning’ and he also complained that his chest was burning. I was terrified and didn’t know what to do,” Ms Fabri recounted in horror.

She rushed Luke to hospital where it turned out he got away with superficial burns to his elbow but everything else was fine. While there, her son’s friend recounted the tickling incident and how Luke had hit the uncovered plug.

Thankfully he was wearing his rubber shoes, she said, believing they could have saved his life.

Since the accident her son has been more withdrawn and does not want to leave the house.

While glad Luke was okay, Ms Fabri felt she could not allow something so serious to pass unnoticed. She believes establishments that cater for children have to take the necessary safety precautions and be held accountable.

“People should not be scared to report such cases. It’s tempting to let it go, once everything is OK, but if everyone turns a blind eye nothing will change,” she said, adding she had filed a police report about the incident.

Simon De Cesare, general manager of the Eden Leisure Group, said routine checks were carried out in the area by a health and safety officer to ensure it was safe.

While apologising, he said that after the accident it emerged that the plug had recently been vandalised and this was not a matter of wear and tear.

“This vandalism could have happened at anytime in the day, however it is unlikely that it was exposed for more than the day in question since cleaners and management would have noticed it and fixed it immediately,” he said. He described the incident as “truly exceptional and strange” adding that the boy appeared to have squeezed into an extremely narrow spot behind the video game in question where there was the plug. The company, he said, took health and safety issues extremely seriously and would conduct further investigations to ensure such an incident did not repeat itself.

“It is indeed regrettable that such an incident has occurred and our apologies and well wishes go to the little boy and his mother.”