5 dead in balcony collapse in California

Five people are dead and eight others injured in a balcony collapse in California, authorities said.

Officer Jennifer Coats of the Berkeley Police Department said many of the injured have critical, life-threatening injuries.

She said police received the call about the incident shortly before 1 a.m. PDT (0800 GMT) on Tuesday.

Arriving officers found that the balcony on the fourth floor of an apartment building on Kittredge Street had collapsed.

Ms. Coats said officers are still investigating at the scene and she doesn’t have any information on how it occurred or what the people were doing on the structure at the time.