Taylor Swift concert fan dies amid heat wave in Rio de Janeiro

A fan died at Taylor Swift’s concert in Rio de Janeiro on Friday night during an unprecedented heat wave.

Ana Clara Benevides, a 23-year-old psychology student, fainted in the front row of the concert and received 40 minutes of CPR at the scene before being taken to hospital, where she died, her friend Thiago Fernandes told the Brazilian newspaper. Folha de S. Paulo.

According to Folha, the heat index at the Nilton Santos Stadium reached 140 degrees, causing a thousand fans to faint, according to an unofficial count by firefighters. Concert videos presented Swift stopped the show twice to bring more water bottles to the crowd, and she herself threw bottles from the stage at distraught fans.

More than 60,000 people attended the concert and the venue had banned fans from bringing water bottles inside. Temperatures in Rio had been rising all week: On Tuesday, the heat index reached 137 degrees, the highest ever recorded in Rio.

Swift expressed her pain over the incident via an Instagram Story posted Friday night.

“I can’t believe I’m writing these words, but it’s with a broken heart that I say we lost a fan tonight before my show,” he said. saying. “I can’t even express how devastated I am by this. There is very little information I have other than the fact that she was incredibly beautiful and too young. I won’t be able to talk about this from the stage because I feel overwhelmed with grief even when I try to talk about it. I want to say now that I am deeply sorry for this loss and my broken heart goes out to her family and friends. “This is the last thing I thought would happen when we decided to take this tour to Brazil.”

“I just can’t believe you’re not here anymore.” wrote Fernandes in an Instagram post mourning the death of Benvides. “I can not accept it. We talked about this show many times and how I wanted to be with you. I’m so sad I don’t know what to do. You were one of my oldest friends. For so long and from now on only in memories!

In response to Benevides’ death, fans started a petition, which had surpassed 200,000 signatures by Saturday morning, to create a law that would provide free water everywhere in Brazil. Flávio Dino, Minister of Justice of Brazil, tweeted Personal water bottles will be allowed into concert venues on Saturday morning, and promoters presenting shows with “high heat exposure” will be required to provide accessible water stations within the venue.

Swift will perform at the stadium again on Saturday and Sunday nights, before performing three shows in São Paulo next week.