A 27-year-old Spanish trapeze artist died after a fall during a Saturday performance at Circus Paul Busch in the eastern German city of Bautzen, as families and children looked on from the stands. Police said the acrobat, identified in Spanish media as Marina Barceló, plunged about five metres (16 feet) from the trapeze at around 5:45 p.m. on September 27 and was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities have opened an investigation into the circumstances and initially classified the incident as a workplace accident, saying there was no immediate indication of third-party involvement. The circus halted its season and dismantled the big top following the fatal fall.
Police and emergency services were called to the Schützenplatz fairground where the travelling circus had opened its engagement a day earlier. A police media notice issued by the Görlitz directorate the same evening confirmed the death and announced psychological support for witnesses who left before ambulance crews arrived, urging them to contact the regional control centre in Hoyerswerda for crisis intervention assistance. Officers said many spectators—among them parents with young children—exited the tent in shock after the fall, and that specially trained counsellors were available “to help process traumatic events.”
Local officials publicly expressed sympathy while cautioning that investigators still had work to do to establish how the accident happened. “Yesterday’s accident has deeply affected us,” Bautzen’s mayor, Karsten Vogt, said. “On behalf of the city, I express my sincere condolences to the relatives and bereaved. Our thoughts are with the families and all those affected by this serious accident.” Police said the tent, which had been due to host shows until 5 October, would be taken down. A handwritten note photographed at the ticket booth read: “Due to a bereavement, the circus will be closed.”
A police spokesperson, Stefan Heiduck, said the performer was not using a safety rope at the time of the fall and that aerialists working at such heights decide themselves whether to secure with a line. “She doesn’t have to. She decides for herself whether to use [a] safety rope. No one else was in the ring during the accident,” he said in remarks reported by German and British outlets. The incident is being treated as an industrial accident in which artists typically set up their own equipment, Heiduck added. Investigators said the trapeze bar and associated rigging were secured as evidence while specialists from the prosecutor’s office, trade authorities and the accident insurance body examined the scene. An autopsy has been ordered as part of routine procedure.