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A man has died after being trapped for 11 hours in the debris of a partially collapsed medieval tower in Rome.
Italian news agency ANSA, citing health sources, reported that 66-year-old Romanian worker Octe Stroici died in Umberto I hospital shortly after being pulled from the debris.
He was taken to hospital in “serious condition”, city police chief Lamberto Giannini said. He reportedly suffered a cardiac arrest in the ambulance.
At least 140 firefighters worked for about half a day to save Stroisy, as his wife also joined the effort.
“The rescue operation took a long time because every time a part of the worker’s body would collapse further after being freed, he would be buried under the debris again,” Giannini told state television station Rai.
Parts of the 29-metre Torre dei Conti near the Colosseum came crashing to the ground on Monday morning. The second incident occurred while firefighters were working on the structure. No firefighters were injured.
The first accident occurred after 11:00 am local time. Local media reported that eleven workers were on site at the time. Another incident occurred when rescue workers were pulling out workers from the debris.
A second worker, a 64-year-old man, was evacuated almost immediately and hospitalized with serious but not life-threatening head injuries, while two other workers suffered minor injuries and refused hospital treatment.
“It all happened suddenly,” one of the workers at the site, who declined to be named, told ANSA. “Then all I saw was a cloud of dust and rescuers.”
Gaetano La Manna, another worker, told Il Messaggero: “I heard a bang and everything collapsed, everything collapsed.”
Debris fell from above and his face and the back of his head were cut.
Adriano De Acutis, commander of the Rome fire brigade, said that Stroisi “was conscious when he emerged”.
According to local media reports, the prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into negligent disaster and negligence causing injury.
The tower, which was to be converted into a museum and conference space, is located halfway along the Via dei Fori Imperiali, the wide avenue that leads from the central Plaza Venezia to the Colosseum.
The building was still standing, but showed significant interior damage.
According to Rome city officials, it once housed city hall offices, but has not been in use since 2006 and was being renovated as part of a four-year renovation project until the end of next year.
Due to EU-funded restoration work, the area around the tower was closed to pedestrians.
The building was built by Pope Innocent III for his family in the early 13th century, and was originally double the height, but was shortened after earthquake damage in the 14th and 17th centuries.