British Teen Charged After Boy Reportedly Thrown Off Tate Museum Balcony

The 6-year-old remains hospitalized in critical condition after falling from the 10th-floor viewing gallery in London.
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A 17-year-old British teen has been charged with attempted murder after a 6-year-old boy was allegedly thrown from a 10th-floor viewing gallery at London’s Tate Modern museum on Sunday.

The child, a French national, remains hospitalized in critical but stable condition after plunging several stories during a visit to the museum with family, Metropolitan Police said Tuesday.

Police have said that the victim and the suspect, who is not being identified because of his age, did not know each other.

The famed Tate Modern gallery in central London.
The famed Tate Modern gallery in central London.
TOLGA AKMEN via Getty Images

The child was found on a 5th-floor roof and transported by London’s Air Ambulance to a hospital. He suffered a fractured spine and “deep” brain bleed, a prosecutor told Bromley Youth Court on Tuesday, according to The BBC.

Guests at the museum described seeing the teenager standing calmly on the gallery moments after the child fell. He allegedly shouted that social services were to blame for what happened, The Telegraph reported.

Nancy Barnfield of Rochdale, England, was at the 10th-floor viewing gallery with a friend and their children when she said her friend heard a “loud bang.”

A 6-year-old boy remains hospitalized after a 17-year-old boy allegedly threw him over this 10th-floor viewing gallery at the Tate.
A 6-year-old boy remains hospitalized after a 17-year-old boy allegedly threw him over this 10th-floor viewing gallery at the Tate.
TOLGA AKMEN via Getty Images

Barnfield, speaking with HuffPost UK, said she turned around and saw a woman screaming, “Where’s my son, where’s my son?”

“We did not notice the mum before, we noticed her after because she was hysterical by then,” she said.

The teenager was reportedly restrained by guests until police arrived.

In April, a 5-year-old boy was hospitalized after authorities said a stranger threw him off a third-floor balcony at the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, who has been charged with attempted first-degree murder in the act, reportedly told police that he was looking for someone to kill because he was upset that women repeatedly rejected him.

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