Street Performer Has His Partner Slam A Giant Slab Of Concrete On His Chest And It Looks Like Several Things May Have Been Broken

Viewers have been left horrified after watching a rural Indian street act in which one man stands on another’s body and slams a huge slab of concrete down onto his chest, then carries on as if nothing happened.

The 52-second clip, filmed at night under a single streetlight in what appears to be a dusty village square, shows a man lying on his back on a thin red mat with two white pipes placed across his torso. A second performer, wearing a bright orange headband and a light-blue T-shirt, climbs onto him, hoists a large, heavy concrete block high above his head and brings it crashing down with full force.

The slab shatters on impact. Dust flies. The man on the ground is then pulled up, his shirt ripped off, and left lying spread-eagled on the mat while the crowd of men and boys watches in silence. He eventually sits up, and the show continues.

The clip has already been viewed hundreds of thousands of times and sparked a wave of stunned reactions. One commenter said it looked “like a ritual execution.” Another joked that the performer must have found a sewer cover to use as a weapon because “they don’t just leave those lying around.”

Street stunts of this kind, often involving stones, hammers or iron bars smashed against the body, have long been a way for travelling performers in parts of rural India to earn a few rupees from passing crowds. Performers claim years of training and “yogic strength” protect them, but medical experts have repeatedly warned that the impact can cause broken ribs, internal bleeding or worse

Whether this particular act ended without serious injury is unclear. What is clear is that the line between entertainment and violence has never looked thinner.