Shakira's crew member crushed to death ahead of pop-star's Copacabana show
The singer is set to perform in front of hundreds of thousands of fans at the iconic Brazilian beach
A crew member was crushed to death after helping to set up a stage for a Shakira concert in Brazil.
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The technician died after becoming trapped under a lifting system while helping to construct the platform for this Saturday's Copacabana Beach show.
The fire department confirmed the man was rushed to hospital after sustaining severe injuries, but could not be saved.
Confirming the news, concert organiser Bonus Track said in a statement: "Unfortunately, the technician passed away in hospital."
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Antonio Marcos Ferreira dos Santos, 51, who witnessed the horror unfolding on the beach, said: "Out of nowhere, we saw people running, and when we looked, the structure was on the ground.
“People were saying that a man had gotten trapped underneath. People rushed over to pull him out.”
The Colombian pop-star is set to perform on Saturday May 2 and crews have been working for weeks in preparation for the show, which is expected to welcome hundreds of thousands of fans.
The concert follows her Las Mujeres Ya No Lloran World Tour, which translates as Women No Longer Cry.
The tour broke the Guinness World Record for the highest-grossing Latin tour of all time, earning over $421.6 million across the first 86 dates.
The star was forced to cancel her concert in Medellin, Colombia, last year, after a stage roof malfunction at the venue posed a safety hazard.