Wallendas among 5 tightrope walkers injured in fall

(AP) — Five circus performers were seriously injured in a fall Wednesday when a pyramid stunt involving famed tightrope walker Nik Wallenda went awry.

All three brought to Sarasota Memorial Hospital are expected to survive, said Dr. Alan Brockhurst, the trauma medical director.

Pedro Reis, founder and CEO of the Sarasota Circus Arts Conservatory which puts on the show, said during a news conference that nothing was wrong with the rigging but that some performers lost their balance.

Other daredevils have crossed the water farther downstream but no one had walked a wire over the river since 1896.

The Wallendas trace their roots to 1780 in Austria-Hungary, when their ancestors traveled as a band of acrobats, aerialists, jugglers, animal trainers and a bit later, trapeze artists.