Super Bowl: Falling ice injures several at Cowboys Stadium

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ARLINGTON, Texas — A Super Bowl safety committee official said five people have been injured by falling ice at Cowboys Stadium, which will host the Super Bowl on Sunday. [Update at 2:08 p.m.: AP is now reporting six people were injured].

[Updated at 1:40 p.m.: The Dallas Morning News reported that seven people have been injured, one critically, by falling sheets of ice and snow at Cowboys Stadium. The accident happened at about 12:15 p.m. PST.]

Arnie Valdez said the ice fell about midday Friday.

Valdez said one person has been critically injured and taken to a hospital. He didn’t immediately know the condition of the others.

He said he had no information on why those injured were at the stadium.

[Updated at 1:27 p.m.: ‘The ice and snow melting off of the Cowboys Stadium roof has caused several sliding snow falls onto the plaza,’ NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said. He said most stadium entrances had been closed Friday afternoon.

The National Weather Service had issued a winter storm warning Friday for Arlington, home of the $1.3-billion stadium where the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers will play this weekend for the NFL title.

Forecasters expect a mostly sunny Super Bowl Sunday with highs in the 40s, and organizers said last week that the stadium’s retractable roof will be closed.

The latest punch of unusual cold and snow hit a city still struggling to recover from Tuesday’s ice storm, part of a massive system that paralyzed a large swath of the country with blizzards, thunder and bone-chilling temperatures this week. ]

More information to come at latimes.com/sports.

-- Associated Press