Country stars Sugarland have responded to a civil suit filed against them after last year's deadly Indiana State Fair stage collapse, insisting they're not the ones to blame for the tragedy.

Seven people were killed and dozens more injured when the stage collapsed onto a crowd of fans as a storm swept through the Indianapolis fairgrounds in August - right before Sugarland were due to perform.

In November , affected audience members launched legal action against the band, concert promoters and stage builders, accusing them of negligence - but the Stay hitmakers have now fired back.

A legal response lodged by the group's lawyers last week reads, "The incident at issue in this litigation resulted from a gust of wind of unprecedented intensity, which caused a structure that may have been improperly designed, maintained and/or inspected to fail. As such, this was a true accident or Act of God."

Sugarland's executives are currently pushing for a jury trial.