FAMILIES OF VICTIMS OF BERKELEY BALCONY COLLAPSE ARRIVING IN THE US
The families of some of the injured Irish students in Berkeley have arrived at the hospital where their children are being treated in California.
Six Irish students were killed in a balcony collapse in the university town yesterday and seven others are injured – two are critical and another two are in a serious condition.
Books of Condolence are being opened at UCD and County Hall in Dun Laoghaire today, and at the Mansion House in Dublin tomorrow.
Father Alan Hilliard is chaplain at DIT, where some of the students studied.
He says there was complete shock yesterday when the news of the tragedy filtered through.
“It was a day of incredible emotion – so many students on Facebook were posting that they’d got their exams and…were delighted – and then you had this other stream coming in of what was happening in America” he said.
“The question that every college asks is ‘are our students involved?'”.
“And then you get a hint that they might be, and then it’s confirmed and it’s just dreadfully tragic” he added.
