Family recovering after balcony collapse

An Auckland family is recovering after their balcony collapsed as they were eating lunch sending them crashing three metres on to a concrete floor yesterday.

Neighbours hearing the crash went to help and found the six members of the Thom lying among the debris at their Brown's Bay, North Shore, home.

Four of the family were taken to hospital with injuries ranging from a badly broken leg to a cut head but a baby survived without even a scratch, the Sunday Star Times reported.

East Coast Bays fire officer Dave Spencer told the paper the balcony looked reasonably old and it did not appear to have been attached properly.

"Everybody was on the deck and came down with it. They didn't get caught under it.

"They are amazingly lucky people. Nobody fell on anybody. It could have been really nasty."

- NZPA