Probe into circus collapse that injured acrobats

Authorities are trying to determine what caused a support frame to collapse yesterday during an aerial hair-hanging stunt as part of a circus performance in Rhode Island, sending eight acrobats crashing to the ground and onto a dancer below.

At least three remained in critical condition yesterday morning, hospital officials said.

The accident occurred during the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Legends show as part of an act in which the circus says eight performers hang “like a human chandelier” using their hair.

Eight of the injured were members of the circus’ Medeiros troupe, and from the US, Brazil, Bulgaria, and Ukraine.

The accident was reported about 45 minutes into the circus’s 11am performance at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center. It was witnessed by an audience of about 3,900, many of them children.

Stephen Payne, a spokes- man for Feld Entertainment, the parent firm of Ringling Bros, said the metal-frame apparatus from which the performers were hanging came free from the metal truss to which it was connected. The eight women fell 25 to 40ft, landing on the dancer below.

Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare said officials and inspectors haven’t yet determined what caused the accident.

Investigators from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration also were to investigate.

Roman Garcia, general manager of the Legends show, asked people to pray for the performers.

He said: “Everybody’s doing fine, everybody’s at the hospital, everybody’s conscious, everybody’s doing pretty well.”

The hair-hanging stunt is described on the circus’s website as a “larger-than-life act”. Payne said all the performers have been doing “some variation of this act for some time”, though he didn’t know how long.