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The Amazing Carnival on the Tamar Site closed unexpectedly last night, leaving about 300 workers - many of them teenagers - out of work and out of pocket.

Stallholders packed up and tallied their losses by the lights of car headlamps as rides and a roller coaster stood idle in the darkness.

One stallholder said the carnival closed after an electricity contractor refused to provide power because he had not been paid.

The stallholder said he would sue Entertainment Asia, the event organiser, to recoup losses of more than $50,000. 'No one is happy. You've got kids that are supposed to get paid who haven't been paid . . . for the unemployed this is not a good sign,' he said.

Police and security guards kept members of the public and media out of the site.

A spokesman for the Hong Kong Tourism Board, which helped to promote the event, said staff had been trying without success to contact Amazing Carnival entrepreneur Dale Rennie for several days.

The board had stopped promoting the carnival after reading reports last week that a second firm associated with Mr Rennie, Australasian Entertainment Company, was in liquidation. Mr Rennie could not be contacted for comment last night.

Public relations staff for the carnival denied several weeks ago that the number of visitors had been low, but organisers at the time introduced a weekday two-for-one ride offer.

The carnival opened on August 10 and was due to close on September 12. It had provided casual employment for about 300 people.

A 15-year-old student said the organisers had promised him $150 a day when he applied for a job, which involved working 12 hours a day from Friday to Sunday.

'I have worked for 21 days at the site. They should give me $3,150 but now I will only get $3,000.'

He said he was lucky compared with other teenagers, who had been paid less than half the wages owing to them.



300 jobs lost as Tamar carnival closes