Local disaster officials stated that a Catholic church balcony fell, killing an elderly woman and wounding 53 people during a packed mass in the Philippines on Ash Wednesday when millions of Filipinos attend prayers.
One of the busiest days on the Church calendar, the day marks the start of Lent in Asia’s Catholic colony.
“An 80-year-old woman died from her chest injuries at a local hospital”, said Gina Ayson, civil defence chief of San Jose del Monte, near Manila.
Ayson went on to say, “The 30-year-old wooden gallery of the Saint Peter the Apostle church had been weakened by termites”.
“It gave way during mass, apparently due to the added weight, plunging churchgoers to the aisle on the ground floor below”, Ayson continued.
“City building officials discovered that a section of the collapsed structure was infested with termites”, Ayson added.
“It looked fine from the outside. We did not know it was being eaten from the inside”, she noted.
The other victims, who were primarily elderly, received bruises and other minor injuries, she added, adding that approximately 400 people were attending mass at the time.
Mayor Arthur Robes has ordered that the damaged church be closed while investigators evaluate its structural safety.
Robes’ Facebook photos showed part of the wooden balcony dangling less than a metre (3.3 feet) above the ground floor, which was littered with church pews, broken plastic chairs, and rubbish.
Yellow police tape was spotted across the front of the 1994-built structure, while another snap showed a paramedic assisting a man.
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