BIRMINGHAM, England, March 27 (UPI) -- A floor of a building in Birmingham, England, collapsed during a funeral as mourners surged forward to view the coffin.
Some 50 people had packed into the corner building for the funeral, reports the Telegraph. As the coffin holding a 23-year-old man who had died of leukemia was brought in, the wooden floor boards collapsed and the mourners plunged 15 feet on to the cellar, the report said.
All the 25 injured were taken to a nearby hospital, but the extent of their injuries was not immediately known.
Ghazanffar Ali, uncle of the deceased, said there was a sudden surge of people as the coffin was brought in.
"There was no warning. One second the floor was there and then it just disappeared from under us all," he said.
A fire official said the building may have been used as a mosque or a meeting room. "It (is) a former corner shop. The floor gave way through sheer weight of numbers," he said.
