The third-floor balcony of a house near the University of Cincinnati in Ohio collapsed on Friday night, injuring 10 people who fell to the ground, according to the authorities.
The house, on Stetson Street, is a few blocks from the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. A spokeswoman for the hospital said it received eight patients, one of whom was in critical condition on Saturday. The seven other patients were stable, she said.
The conditions of the other two people who were injured and which hospitals they were taken to was not immediately known on Saturday.
Those transported to hospitals included university students, Chief Frank McKinley of the Cincinnati Fire Department said. The balcony collapsed at about 10 p.m. Eastern time on Friday.
“It was a very chaotic scene very early on in the incident,” Chief McKinley told reporters on Friday night.
A video on WLWT, a local news broadcaster, showed that the balcony had fallen to the pavement outside the building. Only support beams remained attached to the building.
It was unclear how many people had been at the house or on the balcony at the time of the collapse.
Chief McKinley said there were indications that the weight of the individuals gathered on the balcony, possibly for a party, had been too heavy for the structure.
The university, its housing office and grief counseling services had been called to help the victims, said Lindsay Lomax, a spokeswoman for the Cincinnati Fire Department.
Jin Yu Young contributed reporting.
