Actor killed on stage during Bolshoi performance in Russia

The performance was stopped immediately, and audience members were asked to leave.

A performer at the prestigious Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia was killed in an accident on stage, BBC reports. It is understood that Yevgeny Kulesh was crushed by a ramp after going in the wrong direction during a performance. In footage of the incident, performers urged staff to remove the ramp while onlookers attempted to revive the actor. On Saturday evening, the Bolshoi addresed the incident in a statement, saying: "The performance was immediately stopped, the audience was asked to leave the hall." The accident occurred during a performance of the opera Sadko by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Mr Kulesh had worked at the theatre since 2002. The Guardian reports that he was 37 years old. The Bolshoi Theatre is home to the Bolshoi Ballet and the Bolshoi Opera, which are among the world's most renowned and historic ballet and opera companies. The death of Mr Kulesh is not the first tragic incident at the institution. In the summer of 2013, a violinist passed away after falling into the orchestra pit. Prior to that, in 2011, one of the company's ballet soloists, Pavel Dmitrichenko, received a six-year jail sentence for organising an acid attack on the company's artistic director Sergei Filin.