Two people died and 16 were injured, including athletes taking part in the World Aquatics Championships, after a balcony collapsed under the weight of partygoers at a South Korean nightclub, police said yesterday.
The balcony at the Coyote Ugly club close to the athletes’ village gave way and plummeted about 5m onto people below, sending hundreds of terrified clubbers running to the exit.
Eight athletes, including an Olympic gold medalist — US water polo player Kaleigh Gilchrist, who won at the 2016 Rio Games — were caught up in the tragedy.
Photo: Reuters / Yonhap
“An internal balcony collapsed at a club in Gwangju, killing two,” Gwangju Metropolitan Police Agency detective Song Gi-ju said. “We have a total of 16 injured and among them 10 are foreigners. Of the 10, eight are athletes participating in the Championships.”
The two dead were locals and not involved in the competition, Song said, adding that police were investigating the possibility that the balcony might have been illegally constructed.
The owner of the club — which was packed with more than 300 people as the balcony crumbled — would be investigated on charges of accidental homicide, police added.
The eight injured athletes include three Americans, two New Zealanders, one Dutch, one Brazilian and one Italian.
The World Championships organizing committee said that most of the athletes were treated for minor injuries and have returned to their accommodation.
USA Water Polo said that Gilchrist sustained a deep left-leg laceration and underwent surgery at a Gwangju hospital.
Fellow US water polo players Paige Hauschild and Johnny Hooper were given stitches for an arm and hand injury respectively, it said.
“This is an awful tragedy,” USA Water Polo CEO Christopher Ramsey said. “Players from our men’s and women’s teams were celebrating the women’s World Championship victory when the collapse occurred. Our hearts go out to the victims of the crash and their families.”
The Australian water polo team were also present, but escaped without injury.
The New Zealand men’s captain told Radio Sport: “We were just dancing and then the next minute we dropped 5m or 6m and everyone started rushing out of the club after that.”
“We, I guess, fell on top of the heads of other people that were beneath us,” he added.
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