A building housing a bar and restaurant club that collapsed, killing four people in Majorca, lacked the proper authorisation, local authorities from the Spanish island have said.

Palma de Majorca mayor Jaime Martinez told reporters that it seems the collapse of a first-floor terrace was caused by excess weight and some poorly executed construction work on the building.

Two German women, aged 20 and 30, and a 33-year-old Spanish woman as well as a 44-year-old Senegalese man died last Thursday when the terrace buckled and came down.

The Spanish woman worked in the club, the authorities said.

“There should have been no activity on top (of the building),” fire department spokesman Eder Garcia said.

The terrace damaged the street-level floor below as well as a disco area in the basement.

Mr Garcia said 21 people were on the terrace at the time of the tragedy.

He said that the combined weight of 12 Dutch people at a group of tables, plus the waiters serving them, appears to have overloaded the roof.

Palma is the capital of the Mediterranean island popular with tourists.

The restaurant, called Medusa Beach Club, was located near the beach in an area that was packed with tourists.