ROME (AFP) - Three people were killed and six injured late on Sunday when a balcony collapsed onto a religious procession in the town of Portici near Naples in southern Italy, officials said.

Some 25,000 people were packed into the town's narrow streets for the annual procession in honour of its patron saint, St Ciro.

Two women aged 67 and 65 and a 65-year-old man were crushed under the first-floor balcony of an old house in the town centre.

The collapse sparked panic in the crowd, where Naples archbishop Crescenzio Sepe was also present.