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Meat Loaf collapses

UPDATE: 10:25 p.m.

After cancelling two other concerts earlier this week due to ill health, the singer Meat Loaf collapsed on stage during a concert in Edmonton on Thursday and was taken to a local hospital in unknown condition.

One video of the performance at Edmonton's Jubilee Auditorium showed the singer bending over, then dropping his microphone and falling to the floor. Audience members said he had been singing his classic "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)."

Meat Loaf has a concert scheduled next week in Penticton.

Mikey McBryan, 33, an ice pilot from Yellowknife who had taken his mom to the show for her 70th birthday, said the singer had appeared to be struggling earlier in the performance.

"It was him forgetting words, he wasn't on cue, but it was forgiveable," said McBryan. "We're all loving it and going crazy, and then it just took a turn for the worst."

Moments after he rolled onto his back, musicians from his band walked over while men from behind the scenes ran out onto the stage. A security guard directed some people away from the vicinity while other appeared to be running to get help.

"A lot of people thought it was part of the show -- this is what's going on," said McBryan, who has himself appeared on the reality TV show "Ice Pilots NWT."

"And then all of a sudden it wasn't. The lights went on, they brought out a vertical screen that covered everybody, and they said 'can everyone vacate the arena?' "

He said concert-goers were calm but concerned as they left the auditorium.

"People were, like, 'did we just see history?' No one really wanted to make the conclusion of hey, this might be the last one."

The singer had cancelled two other concerts in recent days — in Regina on Saturday and in Calgary on Tuesday — citing ill health.

Fans flooded Facebook will stories of witnessing the collapse, along with well-wishes for the 68-year-old, whose birth name was Michael Lee Aday.

He is best known for his 1977 album "Bat Out of Hell."

According to his website, he is scheduled to perform Saturday in Cold Lake, Alta., then in Lethbridge, Alta., next Tuesday; Penticton , B.C on June 23; Victoria on June 25 and in Abbotsford, B.C., on June 28.

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