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Nightclub Deck Collapses in S. Korea as Athletes Dance; 2 People Dead

Reuters

   GWANGJU, SOUTH KOREA - The upper deck of a nightclub collapsed on top
   of revelers in South Korea on Saturday, killing two people and injuring
   several foreign athletes competing at the World Aquatics Championships,
   rescue officials and witnesses said.

   The floor gave way in the Coyote Ugly nightclub in the city of Gwangju
   about 2:30 a.m. (1730 GMT Friday), pinning people underneath and
   injuring at least 10, rescue officials said.

   The two people killed were South Korean.

   New Zealand men's water polo team captain Matt Small said he was on the
   second-floor deck when it collapsed.

   "We were just dancing and then the next minute we dropped," he told New
   Zealand's Radio Sport. "We ... fell on top of the heads of other people
   that were beneath us. ... Some of them were pretty dire cases," he said
   of the injured.

   Kim Young-don, chief of the Gwangju Seobu Fire Station, told a briefing
   there were about 370 people in the club at the time.

   "We deem that the second level ... seems to have collapsed because
   there were too many people on it," he said. "The second level is a
   small space, it's not a space where a lot of people can be."

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