Joana Sainz Garcia was struck by an exploding device mid-performance. Photo / Twitter
Joana Sainz Garcia was struck by an exploding device mid-performance. Photo / Twitter
WARNING: Distressing
A young pop star has died in front of shocked fans after a pyrotechnic device exploded mid-performance.
Spanish singer Joana Sainz — a member of the Super Hollywood Orchestra group — was performing on stage at Las Berlanas, a small town northwest of capital city Madrid when the incident occurred.
During the show, which had been organised as part of a local festival, a pyrotechnics cartridge exploded and hit the 30-year-old in the stomach, news.com.au reports.
The stunt was supposed to be part of the performance's special effects, but instead, horrified onlookers who happened to be recording the show captured footage of the fatally injured woman falling to the ground.
Officials lowered the curtains, and medical professionals who happened to be in attendance rushed to provide aid, according to local news publication El Norte de Castilla.
The accident occurred shortly before 2am on Sunday, and emergency services also rushed to the scene and took an unconscious Ms Sainz to hospital, but she died shortly afterwards.
The tragedy was witnessed by around 1000 spectators in the audience who reported hearing a loud bang as the stunt backfired, according to local media.
Joana Sainz Garcia was struck by an exploding device mid-performance. Photo / Twitter
Footage of the explosion has been shared on social media, with one fan posting the video on Facebook with the caption: "A night that started partying and ended up in a terrible tragedy."
The Super Hollywood Orchestra had been hired as part of the festival's entertainment and was in the middle of the final performance of the event when the tragedy took place, leaving the other group members traumatised.
Ms Sainz was Super Hollywood Orchestra's main dancer and choreographer.
Isidro Lopez, from Super Hollywood Orchestra's promoter Prones 1SL, posted a message about the tragedy on Facebook, expressing the company's "most heartfelt condolences" to her family and friends.
He paid tribute to Ms Sainz's "exemplary behaviour, both personal and artistic" and said it would be "very difficult to overcome" her loss.
"We will always remember you, Joana. RIP," he wrote.
A representative from Prones 1SL also told El Norte de Castilla the "unfortunate" and "regrettable" accident appeared to have been caused by a manufacturing failure.
He said the agency had staged the event over "five or six years" with more than 2000 performances and nothing had gone wrong before.
The agency said during the show, "small cartridges" were released that were "like a sparkler", but "one went normal and the other exploded", causing Ms Sainz's death.
"It's something nobody expects," the spokesman said.
A spokesman for Spain's 112 emergency services gave an official statement on the incident soon after.
"A call was received to report an incident in Las Berlanas, where a pyrotechnic device has exploded on the stage of the orchestra and a woman, belonging to the orchestra, has been injured and is unconscious," the spokesman said, according to The Sun.
"The Civil Guard and medics were alerted.
"She was attended to at the scene before being taken to the Avila Healthcare Complex."
