Over 30 Students Injured After Multiple Balconies Collapse At College Party

Between 30 to 40 students have been injured after a balcony collapsed at an off-campus party near Trinity College in Connecticut.

Emergency services were called to the scene at around 11:15 pm on Saturday.

Police said the third-floor balcony had collapsed onto the second-floor balcony, which crashed onto the first.

Hartford police Deputy Chief Brian Foley, who was taking pictures of the scene, found a three-story beer bong.

A number of students were taken to hospital with fractures.

There are no reports of more serious injuries.

Hartford Fire Department Captain Raul Ortiz said,

People were on multiple floors of that porch and it had a pancake collapse and toppled over, injuring people as they were scattering and trying to run for cover, Ortiz said. The deck literally came detached from the house and collapsed. Those were heavy old decks that came down. At this point, the third floor, you look and see a lot of the wood was rotted and very old and structurally not very sound and when you get 50 or 60 kids out there partying on the decks it's obviously a very dangerous situation.

Mayor Luke Bronin said in a statement it was lucky no one was killed in the incident:

Tonight, a deck on a residential building near the Trinity Campus collapsed during a large student party. There are dozens of injuries, but we are very lucky that there were no fatalities and no known critical injuries from what could have been a truly tragic incident. Hartford firefighters and police were on the scene within minutes of the incident.

Mr. Bronin commended the quick response of emergency services.

Witnesses claim to have seen around 50 people partying on the balcony of the 90-year-old building moments before the collapse, reports the New York Daily News.

Citations: NY Daily News