2 dead, 22 hurt after storm blows down New Hampshire circus tent

LANCASTER, N.H. — A man and a girl were killed and at least 22 people were injured Monday when a severe storm blew down a circus tent in northern New Hampshire, officials said.

State Fire Marshal William Degnan said at a briefing late Monday that the injured were taken to four regional hospitals. Their conditions were not immediately known.

The accident happened around 5:30 p.m. as the first of two scheduled shows was getting underway at the Lancaster fairgrounds, about 90 miles north of the state capital in Concord.

Degnan said Walker International Events, based in Sarasota, Florida, was scheduled to do the shows Monday before moving on to Vermont on Tuesday.

About 100 people were in the tent when it collapsed, he said.

Degnan said the identities of the victims, both of whom were spectators, would not be released until their families were notified.

Walker International Events did not return a call seeking comment.

The National Weather Service had issued a severe thunderstorm watch for the area during the time of the collapse.

The collapse comes a day after one man died and more than a dozen were injured when a tent where people had sought shelter during a brief storm blew off its moorings and fell on some of the crowd at a festival in a Chicago suburb. The annual celebration known as the Prairie Fest had attracted about 5,000 people when the tent collapsed.

The popular Lollapalooza music festival in Chicago’s Grant Park briefly shut down Sunday afternoon due to the weather, then resumed less than an hour later. Organizers ended the final day of the festival 30 minutes early Sunday night when another storm hit the area.