In a strange accident in the Netherlands, a bystander was killed during the hammer-throwing event at the Highland Games after being hit in the head by the 22lb ball.
The 65-year-old guy was wandering around the grounds of Geldrop Castle when the invisible hammer slammed into him.
‘The pendulum lowered, we watched the ball fall over the hedge, and then we heard a lady shouting extremely loudly,’ a witness told Omroep Brabant.
The hammer is a wooden rod with a metal ball at the end that is used in traditional Scottish games.
The only thing spectators could do was watch in horror as the guy was slammed to the ground and the Games were immediately suspended.
Many people hurried towards the sufferer and attempted CPR, but their efforts were futile.
According to witnesses, they were warned not to stand in the area where the ball had fallen, but they were free to go beyond the hedge.
After the accident, the hammer thrower was ‘extremely devastated,’ according to a witness: ‘He was not a novice, but genuinely a good player, who had previously competed in important contests before.’
‘We are astonished that anything like this can happen,’ Adri Geerts, chairman of the organizers Foundation Village Marketing Geldrop-Mierlo, told local media.
‘You don’t anticipate it, it’s the worst calamity that could happen to any of us.’ We’re heartbroken.
‘I was ecstatic with the occasion and everyone who was present.’
‘That someone then dies in an accident breaks my heart.’
Victim assistance is assisting competitors, and the athlete who threw the tragic hammer is ‘totally over himself,’ according to Geerts.
The victim has not yet been officially named since police are still investigating the incident.