Balcony Collapses at Sevastopol School During Prom Photo Shoot A celebratory prom photo shoot in Sevastopol turned into a scene of carnage when a second-floor school balcony suddenly gave way under a group of graduating students, sending them crashing to the ground and straight into the center of a political and infrastructural blame game.

The moment the balcony fell

Late on May 20, ten final‑year students at School No. 13 “Pokryshkin” in the village of Kacha stepped onto the second‑floor balcony for a traditional graduation photograph. Reports say the teens, aged 17 and 18, were smiling and had “struck a pose” as the photographer prepared the shot when they “suddenly lost the ground under their feet” and the entire balcony collapsed.

According to initial, unofficial accounts, the group may have been attempting a jump shot for the camera, with the structure failing as they landed. All ten were badly injured; one girl, Katya, was taken to hospital unconscious, while others suffered multiple fractures and severe trauma from the fall.

Horror on the school grounds

Local media published what they described as the “first footage after [the] balcony collapse at [the] school: puddle of blood, emergency services on site, children rushed out to help injured graduates.” Parents and classmates reportedly ran outside as bloodstains appeared at the school entrance and rescuers worked over the injured teens.

One outlet called it a “terrible incident at school: balcony collapsed, at least 10 students injured.”

A freshly renovated tragedy

The pro‑government press quickly foregrounded a key detail: the school, one of the region’s oldest with a 90‑year history, had recently undergone a major renovation lasting nearly two years, with substantial funds poured into new installations, windows, doors and façade work — including, reportedly, the same balcony that failed.

Another headline hammered home the human cost: “Graduates posed for a photo, then the school balcony collapsed: Katya in serious condition, Milana and Ilija bleeding…”

So far, official voices are stressing the freak timing and the jump, while the grim optics of a newly refurbished structure collapsing under ten teenagers raise a harsher question: was this an act of fate, or a failure built — and paid for — in advance?