9 US officers fall to the ground, 7 injured, after wooden deck collapses during arrest operation

Nine members of a U.S. Marshals Service task force fell to the ground after a second-storey wooden deck collapsed beneath them.

They were there to arrest a 26-year-old man for failing to register as a sex offender.

Body camera footage from the Jul. 21 incident showed the officers standing in a line outside an apartment door in Huntsville, Missouri, when the deck suddenly gave way.

The officers, several of whom were holding firearms, fell straight down. However, none of their weapons were discharged during the incident, according to ABC News.

7 officers injured

Seven officers were taken to hospital following the fall.

Steven Lewis, the U.S. marshal for the eastern district of Missouri, told ABC 17 News that the officers had little time to react when the deck collapsed.

Lewis said: “Someone described it almost as if a trap door opened and it fell that way.”

“Not away from the structure, but straight down, which gave them almost no time to react,” he added.

The injured officers included four deputy U.S. Marshals and three local law enforcement officers.

Their injuries included broken bones, torn muscles and concussions, none of which were life-threatening, according to NBC News.

All seven were later treated and released from hospital, ABC News reported.

The suspect was subsequently taken into custody, U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson Abigail Meyer told ABC News.