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A man has died after being crushed while constructing a stage for Shakira’s Copacabana Beach concert in Brazil.
The singer was scheduled to perform in Rio de Janeiro on Saturday, May 2, at a massive free show expected to draw huge crowds.
Emergency services were called after a technician suffered severe leg injuries involving a lifting system. He was rushed to hospital but later died, according to organisers.
“Unfortunately, the technician passed away in hospital,” concert organiser Bonus Track confirmed in a statement.
Crews had been working for several weeks to build the stage for the event, which is expected to attract over one million attendees. A witness told The Sun that panic broke out at the scene.
“People were saying that a man had gotten trapped underneath,” local resident Antonio Marcos Ferreira dos Santos said. “People rushed over to pull him out.”
The concert comes shortly after Shakira’s Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour — meaning Women No Longer Cry — which broke the Guinness World Record for the highest-grossing Latin tour of all time, earning over $421.6 million in its first 86 dates.
Last year, Shakira was also forced to cancel a concert in Medellín, Colombia, after a stage roof malfunction raised safety concerns. Event organiser Paramo Presenta said the structure, installed by a local production company, was damaged during preparations for the February 24 show at Atanasio Girardot Stadium, creating a potential risk to the artist and attendees.
