Official: California balcony collapse kills 5 Irish students
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — A fourth-floor balcony of a San Francisco Bay Area apartment building collapsed early today, killing five Irish students and leaving eight other people injured, officials said.
Irish Foreign Minister Charlie Flanagan told reporters in Dublin that all five of the dead were in the U.S. on temporary visas. A 21st birthday party was underway in the building in the university town of Berkeley at the time of the accident, he said.
Many of the wounded have critical, life-threatening injuries, said Officer Jennifer Coats, a Berkeley police spokeswoman.
Police received a call about the incident shortly before 1 a.m. PDT, and officers arrived to find that the balcony on the fourth floor of the building had disintegrated.
Television footage showed the balcony fell onto the one on the third floor.
The building in the heart of downtown Berkeley has apartments in the upper floors and retail shops at ground level. The walkable neighborhood just blocks from the University of California, Berkeley, is dotted with museums, restaurants, coffee shops and chain stores.
The Library Gardens apartments were built in 2006 and are a block from campus, the Los Angeles Times reported.