Singapore youngsters set 'indoor skydive' record

An instructor guides a Singapore child through an indoor skydive as part of a world record-breaking attempt

Singapore (AFP) - Children with special needs set a world record in Singapore Friday by performing hundreds of "indoor skydives" in a massive wind tunnel. 

Scores of youngsters and their teachers did simulated, tandem skydives under the guidance of instructors, floating up and down on air blasting through the 17-metre (56-feet) high wind tunnel. 

Organisers said the team managed to perform the feat 300 times to set a Guinness World Record for the most tandem indoor skydives. They broke the previous record of 227 set in 2016.

"The fact that (the children) bucked up the courage to go into the air tunnel -- it empowers them," school principal Ruby Chiew told AFP.

"It really provides my kids with the opportunity to experience something that the school itself will not be able to provide."

The students were from the AWWA School, an institute for children with disabilities, and the aim of the record attempt was to raise money for a second school run by the same group.

© Agence France-Presse