Acrobat Breaks Neck In Moscow Circus Fall

A Kenyan acrobat suffered serious injuries including a fractured vertebrae after falling through a safety net during a show at a Moscow circus.

Video footage showed the moment 22-year-old Karo Christopher Kazungu fell nearly 50ft through the net and on to the arena floor during the show on Wednesday evening.

The Great Moscow State Circus said on its website that Mr Kazungu was conscious when he was taken to hospital.

Russian news agencies quoted the director of the acrobatics show saying the acrobat was diagnosed with a fracture of one of the vertebra in his neck and was in intensive care.

He is understood not to have been paralysed.

Life News reported the net broke underneath the acrobat, slowing his impact with the ground.

Mr Kazungu was one of a dozen Russian and Kenyan performers who were taking part in a highly complex show.

Edgard Zapashny, director general of the circus, told Russian television that the circus had never had any incidents of this kind and that the German-made safety net had been rigorously tested at the circus before it was used.