POULSBO, Wash. -- A 7-year-old boy severely injured Tuesday in an accident at a local health club has died.

The Poulsbo Fire Department confirmed that the boy was pronounced dead sometime after he was airlifted to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after the Tuesday evening accident.

The boy, a Poulsbo Elementary student, was at Armstrong Fitness and Physical Therapy at 20101 Front Street, where his father was using the cable crossover exercise machine. An initial report and a fitness center employee said that at 5:39 p.m., the boy was struck by a weight on the machine.

The employee, who asked not to be identified, said the boy was in the area where his father was, which is against the fitness center's rules.

Fire crews said when they arrived on scene, the boy was unconscious but breathing. They could not confirm how the incident occurred, but said it appeared the boy had been struck by weights or a weight rack.

Dennis Swiney, Poulsbo police chief, said a detective went to the fitness club this morning to conduct an "informational fact-finding inquiry" to determine what happened and to document it.

The King County Medical Examiner's Office will be conducting an autopsy.

Kitsap Sun is a media partner of KOMO News.
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