Model dies after collapsing on catwalk at Sao Paulo Fashion Week

A Brazilian model died Saturday after collapsing on the catwalk during a show on the last day of Sao Paulo Fashion Week. The organizers issued a statement and said:

""SPFW has just received the news of the death of model Tales Soares, who suddenly took ill during the Ocksa show. A medical team attended to him on the catwalk and Soares was later taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead".

The statement did not provide more details.

The 26-year-old model fell while turning to leave the runway. Medics immediately attended to him in front of horrified onlookers.Daily Folha de S. Paulo reported that Soares tripped on his shoelace and fell. According to the paper, people in the crowd initially thought his fall was part of a performance.

"We offer our sincere condolences to Tales' family," it said, while label Ocksa said on Instagram its entire team was "shocked" by the death of Soares, who was signed to Base MGT modelling agency.

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Earlier, Veteran British comedian Ian Cognito died on stage during a stand-up performance. The comic, who was in his early 60s, fell ill during the performance at the Atic bar in the English town of Bicester, 14 miles north of Oxford. Paramedics were called to the venue just after 10 p.m. but Cognito was pronounced dead at the scene, the venue's owner, Ryan Mold said.

Mold, who was at the venue during the performance said that Cognito was on stage and "around halfway through his set" when he fell ill. "He sat down, put his head and arms back; his shoulders were twitching," he said.

Mold said the "audience thought it was part of his set," as Cognito had spoken about having a heart attack or a stroke only a few minutes earlier.

He added that Cognito had a "flamboyant character on stage," so his actions "didn't seem unusual" to the audience to start with. Mold said Cognito's fellow comedians realized something wasn't right after a few minutes and ran onto the stage to offer help. They called for an ambulance, and a paramedic in the crowd began performing CPR while the audience was removed from the hall.

(With inputs from agencies)