By ARIEL GONZALEZ
MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay Mar 17, 2006 (AP) Seven residents of a Uruguayan town were killed on Friday when they were run over by a train they were moving manually as part of a reality television show aimed at raising funds for a local hospital, police said.
Several hundred townspeople from Young, about 235 miles west of the capital of Montevideo, were hauling a locomotive and two attached cars down a track pushing and pulling from different sides when some participants fell under the wheels, said a police department spokesman.
Several other people were hurt in Friday's accident, three of them critically.
Eyewitness Ana Portela told a local radio station that the train was moving when "somebody slipped and fell under the locomotive, and others were falling alongside it."
"There were shouts and somebody said 'my arm!'" Portela said. "Everybody was in a state of shock."
The residents were taking part in the program "A Challenge to the Heart," in which Uruguayan communities can raise funds for local charities by completing difficult tasks set by the network, in this case moving a train a certain distance down railroad tracks.
"We're deeply saddened and 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," said a spokeswoman for the network airing the reality show.
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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.