Two killed, eleven injured as truck crashes through youth soccer game in Kansas

Two people — a six-year-old boy and a 35-year-old man — were killed and eleven others taken to hospital after a pickup truck drove through a youth soccer game at the Stryker Sports Complex in Wichita, Kansas, on Saturday afternoon, police said.

Sedgwick County emergency dispatchers began receiving multiple calls about a vehicle driving through a soccer game at around 3:25pm local time, Wichita police Captain Aaron Moses told reporters on Saturday night. The driver crossed from the east side of the complex to a field at its west end, striking multiple people before stopping.

Both victims were pronounced dead at the scene, Moses said; they were not related to each other. Ten of the hospitalised had traumatic injuries ranging from minor to extremely severe, and one person was treated for a non-traumatic medical issue, according to police.

The driver, a 34-year-old woman, remained at the scene and was taken into custody; she is cooperating with investigators. Police said two juveniles were in the truck, and that the driver’s own child was playing soccer at the complex but not on the field where the crash occurred. Police have not established why the vehicle entered the field or whether the incident was intentional.

“We know what happened, but now we’re working very hard to find out why it happened, and we’re not there yet,” police chief Joe Sullivan said. He said authorities had no evidence of an ongoing public threat.

Kansas State High School Activities Association suspended the third-place and championship games of the state’s inaugural girls flag-football state tournament, which had been scheduled later Saturday on an adjacent field, and said updated information would be announced on Monday.

“Today is a heartbreaking day for Wichita,” mayor Lily Wu said. “Families came to Stryker Sports Complex to enjoy a Saturday afternoon, watching their children play football and no one could have imagined the tragedy that would unfold.”