Seven die in reality TV train tragedy

SEVEN residents of a Uruguayan town were killed after they fell under the wheels of a train they were moving manually as part of a reality television show aimed at raising funds for a local hospital.

Omar Lafluff, governor of Rio Negro province where the accident took place, declared four days of mourning. Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez said he felt “deep pain” and expressed his solidarity for the families of the victims.

Several hundred townspeople from Young, about 235 miles west of the capital of Montevideo, were hauling a locomotive and two attached cars down a track late on Friday when some participants fell under the wheels, said police spokesman Ramon Branca.

Several others were hurt, three of them critically.

Ana Portela told a local radio station that the train was moving when “somebody slipped and fell under the locomotive”.

“There were shouts and somebody said, ‘My arm!’” Ms Portela said. “Everybody was in a state of shock.”

The residents were taking part in the programme A Challenge to the Heart, in which communities can raise funds for charities by completing tasks, in this case moving a train a certain distance down railroad tracks.