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Tragic students who plunged from a collapsing balcony may have been trying to save friends as the structure gave way.

Six people - including five Irish students - died and seven more were injured after the fourth-floor balcony collapsed at an apartment block in Berkeley, California.

Structural engineers have suggested the balcony was overloaded and could have been suffering from dry rot when it collapsed during a 21st birthday party yesterday morning.

Now police believe all of the 13 casualties may not have been on the balcony when it started to give way and are investigating whether some fell while trying to pull friends back inside the apartment, the Irish independent reports .

Meanwhile, tributes have started to flood in for the six victims - Ashley Donohoe, 22, and Olivia Burke, Eoghan Culligan, Niccolai Schuster, Lorcan Miller and Eimear Walsh, who were all 21.

Sarah McCarthy, the girlfriend of Eoghan Culligan, described the 21-year-old as "the love of my life" in an emotional Facebook post.

She said: "No words can't begin to describe the loss I feel, I've lost the love of my life and my best friend. My heart goes out to everyone who lost their loved ones in this terrible tragedy.

"See you on the other side my boy, Love you forever"

Eoghan and Niccolai - also known as Nick - Schuster had also studied together at University College Dublin and St Mary's College in Rathmines, Dublin, and left for college life in the class of 2012.

A St Mary's spokesman said: "The school offered prayers for all those who died and were injured in the accident at the start of the summer J1 season in California.

"The thoughts and prayers of everybody in the St Mary's community are with the families of Niccolai and Eoghan, and the other Irish youngsters who died or were injured in the heartbreaking accident in the United States yesterday."

Lorcan Miller was a former pupil at St Andrew's College in Booterstown, south Dublin, where his mother had taught Irish, and had gone on to study medicine in UCD, as had Eimear Walsh.

Headmaster Peter Fraser described him as an 'exceptional person'.

(Image: Reuters)

He said: "The one thing speaking to colleagues this morning was the fact that he was positive, engaging, decent boy who was incredibly talented, but normal, modest and balanced about it all. He was hugely popular."

Four people died at the scene and two died later in hospital. Seven were seriously injured when a balcony collapsed during a 21st birthday party for Aiofe Beary - the cousin of Ashley Donohoe.

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They plunged 40ft when it broke free from the fourth-floor apartment wall and flipped over.

The dead were Irish students visiting California on temporary summer study visas, officials said.

Police said they received a complaint over a loud party at the building in Berkeley in San Francisco Bay around midnight but no officer attended.