Instagram/PA ImagesA female acrobat fell 30 feet to the floor during a performance at London’s Winter Wonderland after ‘slipping from her harness’.
Jackie Armstrong, 35, was performing at the Zippos Christmas Circus Show at 6pm when the incident happened in front of a shocked audience.
Staff immediately rushed to help Jackie, a mother-of-one, after she remained on the floor and didn’t get up after the fall. The tent was then cleared of shocked audience members.
PA ImagesParamedics are understood to have gone into the tent as the audience was clearing out, with a spokesperson for Zippos Circus confirming an artist fell during the 6pm performance of Cirque Berserk at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland.
The spokesperson described Jackie as a ‘highly experienced circus artist’ with 10 years in the ring, saying she was immediately attended to on the scene by first aiders before an ambulance was called, MailOnline reports.
Following the incident, audience members were asked to leave the Big Top and were offered tickets for the next performance that evening.
Zippos CircusA witness described the moment the acrobat fell as ‘traumatic’ and Jackie ‘bounced’ as she hit the floor. ‘She was yelping in agony,’ they added.
The witness said it looked as though the performer had one foot in the loop ‘with no actual harness’, and then her foot ‘slipped out’ causing her to fall to the ground. They continued: ‘Kids were on the front row and there were people screaming.’
Another witness told Sun Online:
It was horrific. I thought it was part of the act but when she didn’t get back up I knew something was wrong. A group of people ran on to help her and people were shouting for a paramedic.
I thought I heard her scream or wail, so hopefully she is conscious. But it looked terrible. People in the audience were coming out crying. There were quite a lot of kids as well. We saw paramedics rush in as we were coming out.
Zippos Circus is a popular attraction at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, with Jackie being a respected aerial acrobat in the business.
Her skill has won her a role in the acclaimed Cirque Berserk, which was the first circus show to perform on a West End stage. She trained in circus school at the age of 22 and joined Zippos when she graduated.
Our thoughts are with Jackie and we hope she makes a full recovery.
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A Broadcast Journalism Masters graduate who went on to achieve an NCTJ level 3 Diploma in Journalism, Lucy has done stints at ITV, BBC Inside Out and Key 103. While working as a journalist for UNILAD, Lucy has reported on breaking news stories while also writing features about mental health, cervical screening awareness, and Little Mix (who she is unapologetically obsessed with).