BERKELEY (KMJ) — As many as six students have been killed – and seven others injured – after a balcony collapse near the campus of UC Berkeley.
The call came in before 1am Tuesday morning. Officers arrived to find that the balcony on the fourth floor of the building had disintegrated.
The building on the intersection of Kittredge Street and Milvia Street is less than half a mile from the UC Berkeley campus.
“The balcony collapsed”, says Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan. “Up to five Irish students are believed to have lost their lives in this appalling tragedy and a number have been seriously injured and they’re being cared for and treated in nearby hospitals”.
Officials add that seven people are in the hospital with life threatening injuries.
“Just hard to say at this point how many people may have actually been on the balcony or if anybody was below who got injured”, says Berkeley’s Police Department’s Jennifer Coats. “Those are still things that we’re going to have to try and figure out”.
It’s unknown at this time what caused the balcony to collapse, but city investigators are now trying to determine what led to the tragedy.
