Dozens of students were plunged into Lake Mendota when a pier at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Memorial Union Terrace collapsed Monday.
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WMTV NBC15 displayed footage of the incident and noted lifeguards were not present at the time the pier fell.
The University of Wisconsin Police Department noted between 60 and 80 people were standing on the pier when it collapsed.
One person was taken to the hospital and five others were treated on site. Most injuries were minor scrapes and bruises but left students in shock, officials said.
Freshman Gabrielle Willbrandt was standing on the pier when it fell. She noted, “I turned to this one girl, and we were like, ‘Oh my God. Did that really just happen?’”
Nicole Mitchell was swimming at the time this occurred. She said, “It was really scary. It made a really loud noise at first, and then it was basically a fight or flight response.”
“Me and my friend, who I was swimming, treading water with, we swam as fast as he could back to the dock,” she went on.
She then added, “Everyone was screaming, looking for their things, making sure their friends were okay.”
Firefighters arrived on the scene shortly after the collapse, per local Channel 3000. They sent two divers into the water to ensure that no one was trapped in the wreckage.
Mitchell stated, “The fire department came and was like, ‘You all have to get off the dock, you can’t walk back, it might collapse.’ So then we were swimming with our phones in the air, like we didn’t want to get them wet.”
“Definitely scary, I was shaking for awhile, but (I’m) feeling better now,” she added.
The cause has yet to be disclosed but the pier was scheduled to be removed for the season one day after the collapse.
