Six people killed in balcony collapse in California

A balcony collapsed early Tuesday morning on the fourth floor of an apartment building in Berkeley, north California, killing six college students and injuring seven others.

Berkeley police spokeswoman Jennifer Coats said the authorities received multiple calls around 12:41 a.m. local time about the incident at the Library Gardens apartment complex, near the campus of University of California at Berkeley.

At a news briefing later in the day, authorities confirmed that three men and three women died, and the seven others remained hospitalized. Most of them were from Ireland and were working in the San Francisco bay area on temporary visas for the summer vacation.

Initial TV footage showed that the fallen deck sat on a third- story balcony beneath and indicated that the victims had plunged about 12 meters to the street below.

They were celebrating a friend's 21st birthday at the time of the incident. The conditions of the injured were "very serious and potentially life-threatening," according to Coats.

Irish authorities were notified of the incident, prompting Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny to issue a statement, saying that "my heart breaks for the parents who lost children this morning." Enditem