Boy, 5, hit in head with rock while riding on Kuranda train

What should have been a happy outing to Kuranda has ended in heartache after a five-year-old boy was seriously injured when a rock came flying through the window of a train on Saturday.

The boy was hit by the rock while the train was travelling through Cairns North.

What should have been a happy outing to Kuranda has ended in heartache after a five-year-old boy was seriously injured when a rock came flying through the window of a train on Saturday.

Police and paramedics were called to the Cairns Railway Station at Cairns Central Shopping Centre at 3.59pm soon after the Kuranda Scenic Railway train arrived at the platform.

Initial police investigations indicate a rock was thrown through the train’s window near the intersection of James and Law streets at Cairns North.

The projectile flew through the window and hit a five-year-old boy in the head.

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokesman said paramedics treated the boy, who was taken to Cairns Hospital in a stable condition.

A file photo of a child on the Kuranda train.

According to Rescue 510 helicopter flight records the boy was flown to Townsville University Hospital for further treatment soon after 7pm on Saturday.

On Sunday afternoon a patient update from the Townsville Hospital listed the boy as being in a stable condition.

Police have reached out for assistance in efforts to identify the person who allegedly threw the rock.

Particularly, anyone with relevant vision is urged to come forward to assist in the grievous bodily harm investigation.

According to Queensland Courts a grievous bodily harm charge can be applied if a victim loses a body part, is seriously disfigured or if the injury is left untreated would endanger the victim’s life, or cause a permanent injury.

There has been a strong reaction to the attack on an innocent child online and while many expressed sympathy for the young lad others outraged at such a heinous act demanded that perpetrators be held to account.

The latest rock throwing incident follows a spate of unrelated stone throwing in Cairns that’s targeted public buses, taxis and trains.

There was a shocking rock vandalism attack on one of the Savannahlander’s trains in August.

Also in August, wayward teens were charged with a string of offences after allegedly throwing rocks at a moving bus on Mulgrave Road before absconding from the roadside to release a racehorse from Cannon Park.

The following day police launched an unrelated investigation into reports of a high velocity projectile that smashed through the windows of two Cairns Taxi vehicles on Sheridan St that left elderly drivers terrified.

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Originally published as Boy, 5, hit in head with rock while riding on Kuranda train