Seven residents of a Uruguayan town were killed on Friday when they were run over by a train they were pushing as part of a reality television show aimed at raising funds for a local hospital, police said.
Several hundred townspeople from Young, about 235 miles west of the capital of Montevideo, were pushing a locomotive and two attached cars when some participants slipped and fell under the wheels of the train, said a police department spokesman.
Several other people were hurt in Friday’s accident, three of them critically.
The residents were taking part in the program “Desafio al Corazon” (“A Challenge to the Heart”), in which Uruguayan communities can raise funds for local charities by completing difficult tasks, in this case pushing a train a certain distance down railroad tracks.
“We’re deeply saddened and Channel 10 offers its solidarity and support to the families involved in this unexpected tragedy that came, in fact, while they were trying to help others,” said a spokeswoman for the network that airs the reality show.