The Mayor of Angers Christophe Bechu has expressed his 'shock' and 'incomprehension' after four people died when a balcony they were standing on collapsed.

He said he was 'in shock after the death of four young Angevins at a party'.

Mr Bechu said his thoughts were with the families of those who died and their friends who were injured in the collapse.

The horrific incident took place at around 11.30pm in the western city of Angers, in the Maine-et-Loire department.

Youngsters at the party had moved out on to the third-floor balcony to talk, smoke and dance, but it began to give way.

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The balcony collapsed last night in the recently completed building in Angers, western France

Four people were killed and 14 were injured when a balcony collapsed from this building in Angers in Western France in a building which had recently been completed

This photograph appears to show the spot where the balcony failed late last night

Mayor of Angers Christophe Bechu, pictured, broke down when he visited the scene today

Chilling pictures show that the balcony then dropped off completely, sending everybody to the ground below, as they crashed into two other balconies on the way down.

Michel Pichon, of the Angers University Hospital, said: 'The victims were all students aged around twenty.'

Mr Pichon said four died at the scene, while another 14 were being treated. 'Some are seriously injured, but none have life-threating injuries,' said Mr Pichon.

He said 70 emergency workers had been scrambled to the scene, and that everybody caught up in the tragedy had been accounted for. Nobody was injured on the balconies below.

A support centre has been set up for victims and their friends and family, and this includes a psychological unit, Mr Pichon added.

Police are currently investigating the cause of last night's collapse which claimed four lives

It appears that the balcony destroyed the two below it as it plummeted to the earth

A neighbour who lives on the floor below said: ' We suddenly heard a noise - which was the collapse - then we heard the cries.'

The city's mayor Christophe Bechu raised the possibility that a construction fault was to blame.

He said: 'If there was no defect, how can we understand how such a tragedy could happen?

'The size of the balcony did not suggest that it was unable to accommodate 15 people under normal conditions.'

Friends and relatives hugged each other outside the apartment complex earlier today

Some left messages and floral tributes at the scene of the disaster

The victims were three men aged 21, 23 and 25, and an 18-year-old woman.

The apartment's two young female flatmates had invited around 30 friends - most of them law students - to celebrate their housewarming after recently moving in.

They were not among the victims, and city authorities have moved them to different accommodation as a police investigation for manslaughter and involuntary injury gets under way.

The probe will seek to determine 'how the incident happened and the cause of the collapse,' the local prosecution service said.

'A legal expert specialising in construction is on the scene.'

Experts were examining what was left of the balcony, which snapped cleanly away from the apartment block's exterior wall looking over a courtyard. Residents have been evacuated from the block.

'All evidence suggests that the cause of this tragic incident was accidental,' a source close to the inquiry said.

The building, which is in the centre of Angers, was built as recently as 2000, and was regularly renovated, according to sources close to the investigation.

Mayor of Angers Christophe Bechu gave a press conference at the scene of the tragedy

The balcony had sheered from the wall and destroyed two more on its way to the ground

It appears the reinforcing steel in the concrete failed allowing the balcony to plunge to earth

The mayor tweeted his support to the victims and their families after attending the scene

An official investigation will now be launched to try and establish the exact circumstances of the accident.