6 Killed in California Balcony Collapse During Party

A 21st-birthday party thrown by a group of visiting Irish college students turned tragic early Tuesday. That's when the fifth-floor balcony they were crammed onto collapsed with a sharp crack, spilling them about 50 feet onto the pavement. Six people were killed and seven seriously injured. Police and fire and building officials were working to figure out why the small balcony broke loose from the stucco apartment house a couple of blocks from the campus of the University of California, Berkeley. Philip Grant, Consul General of Ireland to the Western United States, said it was hard not to be affected when tragedy strikes in such a tight-knit community.