Sending 30 people into Rio de Janeiro’s Guanabara Bay next to Olympic diver James Magnussen
A partial staircase collapse during a Brazilian procession left 30 people injured, including Olympic athlete James Magnussen, on Sunday as part of the country’s Carnival celebrations.
The facade of the theatre where the affair was being held in Rio de Janeiro, where most of the injured were taken, caved in leaving some people falling into the bay next to the venue.
One woman, a tourist from New Zealand, said she was standing on the staircase next to the stage for around 30 minutes when it collapsed.
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“I heard a loud bang like a brick wall,” the woman, named Aspen, told Reuters after she was transferred to a nearby emergency room.
Many of the onlookers were foreigners, with at least one Japanese man in hospital. Local media said Magnussen, a three-time Olympic swimmer who won gold in the men’s 100m freestyle at the 2012 London Games, was also injured but has since been discharged.
Local authorities said two women and 12 men were injured and taken to two medical centres after the incident, which took place at around 1pm local time (1500 GMT).
Authorities said “a lot of rain” had fallen over the area before the collapse, adding that investigators were looking into whether the structure might have cracked due to the pressure.