Two Kiwi women's water polo players injured in nightclub balcony collapse

Police stand at the door to Coyote Ugly nightclub in Gwangju, where two people were killed after a balcony collapsed. Photo / AP

Two New Zealand women's water polo players have come away with minor injuries after a balcony collapsed at a South Korean nightclub, killing two people.

Bernadette Doyle, 18, and Emily Nicholson, 21, were injured in the collapse at the Coyote Ugly nightclub in Gwangju at 2.39am on Saturday.

Both the Kiwi men's and women's water polo teams were in South Korea for the Fina World Aquatics Championships.

Nicholson's mother, Janet Nicholson, said her daughter had been dancing on the mezzanine floor in the nightclub when it gave way.

"Everybody landed on top of each other, and on top of broken glass which is how she cut her wrist and got some cuts on her legs.

"She said the pipes all burst so there was water everywhere and they all got soaked."

Emily received a deep cut to her wrist, which required nine stitches, while her team-mate Bernadette Doyle is suspected to have broken her tail bone.

"They were really lucky. It sounded like the mezzanine was reasonably high and being underneath it would have been way worse," Nicholson said.

"When your kid is in that situation, you just want to get them home as fast as possible."

Kiwi water polo player Emily Nicholson (pictured in 2016) was injured in the nightclub incident. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Nicholson said at first they weren't sure whether Emily would be allowed to fly home with the team yesterday, but she was luckily stitched up in time.

"Yesterday was all about getting her stitched up and okay to fly. I think Bernadette is still in Korea, but hopefully will be flying home today," she said.

"It is sad that it has ended like this, and spoilt they whole experience, because they had a great tournament."

Local media Yonhap News Agency reported two South Koreans were taken to hospital in a serious condition and later died.

They were not competitors at the championships.

In a statement, Fina, the international swimming governing body, said it was keeping close tabs on the situation and vowed to "activate all measures to ensure health care and assistance is provided whenever necessary."

"Fina deeply regrets the situation and sends its best wishes to any victims of this accident," it said.

Police investigators inspect a collapsed internal balcony at a nightclub in Gwangju, South Korea. Photo / AP

Yonhap reported that authorities suspected the loft collapsed due to too much weight.

Witnesses said there were about 100 people on the loft area, which was 2.5m above the lower floor.

'Pretty chilling'

Yesterday, New Zealand captain Matt Small said he was with about seven or eight men's team-mates in the club at the time of the incident.

"We were just dancing and then the next minute we dropped 5m to 6m and everyone started rushing out of the club after that.

"We, I guess, fell on top of the heads of other people that were beneath us."

He told Radio Sport critically hurt people were lying everywhere after the incident, and a few of the men's team tried to get some of the injured out from under the rubble.

"We did what we could, but we couldn't really do too much. Some of them were pretty dire cases."

Police stand at the door to Coyote Ugly nightclub in Gwangju, where two people were killed after a balcony collapsed. Photo / AP

"We were more so just concerned about everyone else, we were trying to do a number count and make sure all the boys were there.

"And everyone was fine - so pretty relieving stuff but at the same time pretty chilling."

He said there were probably between 10 to 15 New Zealand men's and women's water polo players in the club.

There were also athletes from Australia, the US, the Netherlands, Italy and Brazil.

Chris Wilson, the chief executive of NZ Water Polo, confirmed to Radio Sport all the New Zealand players were safe.

"At this stage, there are no serious injuries, a couple of our women's players had some minor injuries, but all the New Zealand players are safe and well and accounted for," he said.

Wilson said reports the men's players had helped the injured made sense.

"Like any situation with human nature where people are under a bit of pressure people do rise to the occasion, and I'm sure that part of the New Zealand team they would rise to that occasion themselves," he said.

"That's the sort of thing we do when we get into these type of situations."

The New Zealand women's team departed Korea for New Zealand yesterday morning as scheduled, and the New Zealand Men departed for home later in the evening.

"It's been a busy two weeks for the New Zealand men's and women's teams at this championships," Wilson said.

"We had an outstanding result for the New Zealand women - finishing 12th, one of the highest placings in a 16 team tournament.

"The New Zealand men's not as strong in 16th, but a very high-level competition."