Police Seek 2 Men After Tear-Gassing at Knott’s

Buena Park police Friday were seeking two men who set off a tear-gas bomb inside a crowded Halloween night attraction at Knott’s Berry Farm.

Officer Terry Branum said 60 people were treated by paramedics and park medical personnel for eye and lung irritations, including 10 who were taken to a nearby hospital and later released.

Witnesses said two young men ran from the haunted house building just after the military canister was ignited.

About 40 people were inside the attraction, Branum said, and several were injured as they scrambled to escape.

Branum said the cloud of acrid gas then drifted into a nearby area of the amusement park where more than 13,000 customers were on hand for the annual Halloween celebration.

The haunted house area was closed for about 20 minutes, according to Branum, until the gas cloud dispersed.

Branum said the tear-gas canister will be hard to trace because its serial number had been scraped off. But he said police “will be re-contacting the victims over the next few days to see if we can get a better description of those two men.”