A Catholic church balcony collapsed, killing an elderly woman and injuring 53 during a packed mass at San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan on Ash Wednesday, when millions of Filipinos flock to services, local disaster officials said.
One of the busiest dates on the Church calendar, the day marks the beginning of Lent in Asia’s Catholic outpost.
An 80-year-old woman expired from her chest injuries at a local hospital, Gina Ayson, civil defense chief of San Jose del Monte, told Agence France-Presse.
Noli Concepcion, special assistant of City Mayor Arthur Robes, identified the fatality as Luneta Morales, who was below the mezzanine when it collapsed.
The incident happened at around 7:20 in the morning, just before the start of the ash marking on the forehead of devotees.
The 30-year-old wooden gallery of the Saint Peter the Apostle Church in Tungkong Mangga district had been weakened by termites, Ayson said.
It gave way during Mass, apparently due to the added weight, plunging churchgoers to the aisle on the ground floor below, she said.
“City building officials discovered that a section of the collapsed structure was infested with termites,” she told AFP.
“It looked fine from outside. We did not know it was being eaten from the inside.”
The other victims, who were also mostly elderly, sustained bruises and other slight injuries, she said, adding about 400 people were attending mass at the time.
Mayor Arthur Robes has ordered the damaged church shut as investigators inspected the building’s structural safety, according to Ayson.
Pictures posted by Robes on his Facebook page showed part of the wooden balcony hanging less than a meter (3.3 feet) from the ground floor, which was littered with church pews, broken plastic chairs and debris.
Yellow police tape could be seen placed across the front of the building, built in 1994, while another photo showed a paramedic giving aid to a man.
An initial radio report of the incident tallied at least 34 persons were rushed to nearby hospitals for medical treatment after incurring bruises, cuts, and bone trauma.
Later, at past 9 a.m., the figure has risen to 47 and just before noon, the CDRRMO has tallied some 53 individuals who were treated for various injuries, some of them still confined as of press time.
Parish priest Romulo Perez said the church is undergoing renovation. With AFP