MONTEVIDEO, March 17 (Xinhuanet) -- A locomotive lost control in a reality television show in Uruguay on Friday, killing seven people,police said.
About 200 residents in Young, a Uruguayan town about 380 kilometers west of the capital of Montevideo, wer e invited to push the locomotive as part of the TV program "Desafio al Corazon" (A Challenge to Your Heart).
Some people slipped and fell under the wheels of the train when it gathered speed. The locomotive had no brakes, police said.
Seven people were killed and eleven others injured in the accident.
The Channel 10 television station held the program to raise funds for a local hospital, police said.
Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez, who was returning from Paraguay, the final stop of a five-nation South American tour, expressed "deep grief" and solidarity with the victims.
Local authorities had declared three days of mourning. Enditem
A runaway train killed seven people and injured eleven more today in the small town of Young, Uruguay, about 235 miles west of Montevideo. The victims were taking part in an Uruguyan reality game show, Desafio al Corazon, or "A Challenge to my Heart," where communities can raise money by performing tasks. The task in this accident was to push or pull a train with two cars attached to it down a railroad track. The train gathered too much momentum and ran down the people in front of it. 

One eyewitness, Ana Portela, said that the train was in motion when "somebody slipped and fell under the locomotive, and others were falling alongside it. There were shouts and somebody cried 'my arm!' Everybody was in a state of shock." 

Local authorities have declared three days of official mourning as Uruguayan President Tabaré Vázquez offered his deepest condolences for the victims of the crash. A spokeswoman from the channel airing the program, Mrs. Graciela Baccino stated, "Channel 10 offers its solidarity and support to the families involved in this unexpected tragedy that came, in fact, while they were trying to help others." The money raised would have gone towards a local hospital.