New Bear Grylls series stopped filming for eight hours while contestants were airlifted out with ‘life-threatening’ injuries

Bear Grylls has revealed that filming was briefly suspended on his new TV series due to participants facing “life-threatening” injuries.

The presenter and wilderness survival expert was filming World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji for Amazon Prime Video, when the incident happened.

For World’s Toughest Race, Grylls oversaw 66 competing teams from 30 different countries as they raced 671km across the country of Fiji.

In an interview with Metro, Grylls revealed: ”There were so many people on the ground, so many moving parts, competitors spread out over such a huge area, in such remote tides with crazy weather on occasions – there’s a lot to go wrong.

“And with all wilderness disasters, it only takes three or four small, inconsequential things and suddenly you’ve got a disaster on your hands.”

The host said that there were “a few occasions” in which teams became “trapped in remote ravines” that were inaccessible by helicopter, as well as flash floods, big storms and rising water levels.

Grylls described the situation as “very touch and go”.

“We actually at one point had to shut the race down and stop it,” he said. “I think it was eight hours or so, which is pretty rare for us to have to do that. But people’s lives are on the line, we had people we did have to airlift out, with really serious life-threatening infections.”

“That’s the thing about World’s Toughest Race – you’ve got to look after yourself all the time,” he added. ”You take your eye off the ball and you get a little cut, and you think it’s inconsequential, and before you know it, a day in, your leg’s ballooned up. People can die super easily like that.”

The series launches on Amazon on Friday 14 August 2020.

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