PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A platform collapsed during an aerial hair-hanging stunt at a circus performance Sunday, sending eight acrobats plummeting to the ground. Nine performers were seriously injured in the fall, including a dancer below, while an unknown number of others suffered minor injuries.
The accident was reported to police at about 11:45 a.m., 45 minutes into the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus' Legends show at the Dunkin' Donuts Center in Providence.
Stephen Payne, a spokesman for Feld Entertainment, the parent company of Ringling Bros., said the accident happened during an act in which eight performers hang "like a human chandelier" using their hair.
He said the metal-frame apparatus from which the performers were hanging came free from the metal truss it was connected to. The eight women fell 25 to 40 feet, landing on a dancer on the ground.
All the performers have been doing "some variation of this act for some time," Payne said, though he didn't know how long. The current incarnation of the act began in January with the launch of the show, he said.
Providence Public Safety Commissioner Steven Pare said officials and inspectors haven't yet determined what caused the accident. He said none of the injuries appears to be life-threatening.
Rhode Island Hospital in Providence admitted 11 patients with varying injuries, including one in critical condition, spokeswoman Jill Reuter said.
The hair-hanging stunt is described on the circus' website as a "larger-than-life act" featuring eight female performers.
"These 'hairialists' perform a combination of choreography and cut-ups including spinning, hanging from hoops, and rolling down wrapped silks, all while being suspended 35 feet in the air by their hair alone," the website says. "In this hair-raising act, audiences will even see the weight of three girls held aloft by the locks of only one of these tangled beauties."
Sydney Bragg, 14, of North Kingstown, said the platform began to fall as it neared the rafters of the arena. At first, she said, she thought it was part of the act.
"It just went crashing down," Sydney said. "Everyone was freaking out. We heard this huge clatter and then we just heard the girls scream."
She said spotlights were on the performers at the time, but all the lights went out after the fall.
Rosa Viveiros of Seekonk, Massachusetts, said the act was covered by a curtain. Shortly after the curtain was pulled away, she said, the performers fell on top of at least one other performer, a man who stood up with his face bloodied. The other performers remained still, she said.
"We thought it was part of the circus," said Rosa Viveiros' husband, Joe.
The Dunkin' Donuts Center said two shows scheduled for later Sunday have been canceled.