A 24-year-old singer-guitarist has died after he was electrocuted by his own instrument while warming up at a soundcheck before a gig.

Luyan Lopes de Aguiar died during the soundcheck at an outdoor venue in the municipality of Sao Borja in the southern Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul on Saturday night, 12th February.

Luyan sang and played guitar in the band Pankda de Vaneira from the neighbouring municipality of Itaqui. The band’s songs have tens of thousands of streams on YouTube.

The band members had arrived at the venue at around 7pm for a soundcheck.

According to information provided by the other band members, Luyan tuned his instrument and strummed it twice.

On the third time, he touched the strings with his bare hand and immediately screamed for help.

The other bandmates unplugged the gear and one of them tried to remove the guitar from the young man’s hand, but got an electric shock himself.

The bandmates tried to revive the singer-guitarist, while firemen and paramedics were called over to the scene.

The emergency service workers also tried to revive Luyan, but he succumbed at the scene, despite their best efforts.

Luyan had been in Pankda da Vaneira for three years, and he and his fellow band members had recently been working on new music.

He had also just passed his Military Police (Brazil’s preventive police force) entry exam.

Luyan and his bandmates had previously played without hitch at the same venue, which will now be inspected by police investigators.

Fellow singer Marcelo Gomes de Gomes Junior said of his late bandmate: “Luyan was a person who delighted everyone, humble, respectful, a dreamer. He is sorely missed. No one who knew Luyan disliked him.”

The deceased musician was buried in Itaqui on Sunday, 13th February.