Twelve die in Chicago as balcony collapses at party

A woman who survived the collapse of a balcony in which at least 12 people died said she heard wood splitting just before she fell.

As many as 35 other people were injured in the tragedy when the second floor balcony gave way, crushing the first-floor balcony beneath it to the ground and trapping some people in a basement stairwell at a building in Chicago, in the United States.

Disaster struck as scores of university graduates were enjoying a party in the city's northern suburbs.