Two injured as Glasgow Hydro Nitro Circus show goes wrong

Two men were taken to hospital when a four-man backflip stunt at an extreme motorsports show went wrong.

The Nitro Circus show at the Glasgow Hydro. Picture: John Devlin

The Nitro Circus at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro was temporarily halted on Thursday night when the men, who were said to be volunteers plucked from the audience, were hurt during a biker’s attempt to perform the trick off a ramp.

Three volunteers were on the motorbike with a professional rider when it appeared to stall near the top of the ramp and tipped over the side.

The stuntman and the man at the back were uninjured but the other two fell off to the left of the ramp and the bike landed on top of them.

In a statement, the organisers said: “During Thursday night’s Nitro Circus Live show at Glasgow’s SSE Hydro Arena, two passengers who sustained injuries during a four-person motorbike backflip attempt were transported to a nearby hospital. One is fine apart from some bruises. The other has a broken jaw and will have surgery on Friday, but is in good spirits and is expected to make a full recovery. Nitro Circus considers health and safety its top priority and has expert medical staff on site in the event of an emergency.”

The circus refused to answer further questions from The Scotsman or comment on reports that the volunteers were in fact part of the show. One of the two injured men was taken to Glasgow Royal Infirmary by the Scottish Ambulance Service and the other treated by a private service, a spokesman said.

An audience member, who asked not to be named, said: “They asked for volunteers 18+, a bunch of people came forward, those three were picked. They hyped it up before showing how in the past it hasn’t worked and showed some videos of them crashing trying it previously.They were all wearing full gear and paramedics arrived really fast, within ten seconds.”

Video on social media showed the incident and the MC of the event said “that is the worst crash we have ever had”. He added: “It’s obviously not planned – occasionally something can go wrong.”

Liam Hodgins, a former motorbike racer who was in the audience, volunteered for the stunt. The 23-year-old, from Glasgow, said: “I put my hand up but I was high up in the crowd and it was three people on ground level they picked. The said that they practiced it a thousand times and that it had gone right. I was quite glad I didn’t get picked.”

“The volunteers were quite fit looking. The guy at the back tumbled off the back of the bike down the ramp so he was ok. The other two fell off to the left and the bike came crashing down on top of them. The stuntman was ok.”