[en] We construct a Chern-Simons type gauged N = 8 supergravity in three spacetime dimensions with gauge group SO4 x T _∞ over the infinite dimensional coset space SO{8, ∞}/(SO8 x SO∞), where T _∞ is an infinite dimensional translation subgroup of SO{8, ∞}. This theory describes the effective interactions of the (infinitely many) supermultiplets contained in the two spin-1 Kaluza-Klein towers arising in the compactification of N (2,0) supergravity in six dimensions on AdS ₃ x S ³ with the massless supergravity multiplet. After the elimination of the gauge fields associated with T_∞, one is left with an Yang Mills type gauged supergravity with gauge group SO(4), and in the vacuum the symmetry is broken to the (super-)isometry group of AdS ₃ x S ³ , with infinitely many fields acquiring masses by a variant of the Brout-Englert-Higgs effect. (author)