A Cirque du Soleil acrobat was hurt after a fellow performer plunged 12 metres and landed on top of him during a hometown show.

The high-flying Montreal-based troupe was performing its show “Saltimbanco” at the Bell Centre Thurday night, when an acrobat leapt off a platform during a “Russian swing act” but missed his mark.

As the audience watched in horror, he instead landed on a male colleague who was acting as a spotter below.

The show was stopped for about 20 minutes so medics could attend to the 35-year-old man.

He now faces surgery for a broken ankle.

The injured spotter likely saved his colleague from injury, said Cirque spokeswoman Renée-Claude Ménard.

The world-renowned troupe had a similar accident just last month in Las Vegas, when a 29-year-old performer lost her grip on a ribbon-like drape and fell, knocking down another colleague.






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