The village fiestas in Cornellà del Terri on Good Friday nearly turned into a tragedy when a falling tree narrowly missed the crowd.

This tree-felling event takes place each Easter in the Plaza Mayor. Before hand, the highest tree in the municipality is cut down, its branches removed, and then transported to the square where it is erected in a special place to be symbolically cut down again with a chainsaw.

Despite using special device used to direct the falling tree, this year the 40-metre high tree swung out over the spectator area. The man was just putting the saw down when the cries of alarm from the audience made him look round and react.

Fortunately, he and his assistant moved very fast and began pushing the falling tree in the right direction, actually managing to achieve this.

However, two members of the crowd had abandoned their seats and run into the centre of the square to avoid the tree that was toppling towards the crowds, only to have the toppling tree follow them before smacking down directly between them – the slower runner fell over the tree debris as it smacked down at his feet.

Anyway, you can see all this in the video below.

After the ‘close call,’ the Mayor of Cornellà de Terri, Salvador Coll, announced that they would be taking better safety measures next year, adding that the high winds had caused the tree to veer off towards the seating area.

(News: Cornellà de Terri, Cataluña)