A Romanian worker who was trapped for hours under rubble in Rome after the partial collapse of a medieval tower has died in hospital, just a short time after he was pulled free by emergency services.
“I express deep sorrow and condolences, on behalf of myself and the government, for the tragic loss of Octay Stroici, the worker who was killed in the collapse of the Torre dei Conti in Rome,” Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni said in a statement after midnight. “We are close to his family and colleagues at this time of unspeakable suffering.”
Two section of the 29-metre (95ft) Torre dei Conti, near the Colosseum, crashed to the ground, videos posted on social media showed. The first collapse took place at about 10.30am UK time, the second about 90 minutes later.
Clouds of dust billowed out of the windows, along with the sound of collapsing masonry. The second collapse happened while firefighters worked on the structure with aerial ladders. None of the firefighters were injured.
“The rescue operation took a long time because every time a part of the worker’s body was freed, further collapses occurred, burying him again under the rubble,” Giannini said, soon after Stroici was freed.
Authorities said he was conscious during the lengthy rescue operation before he was hospitalised in critical condition. He died shortly after he arrived at the hospital.
A second worker, also Romanian, was pulled out almost immediately and taken to hospital with serious but not life-threatening head injuries, while two more workers suffered minor injuries and declined hospital treatment.
Moment part of medieval tower in Rome collapses – video
Witnesses reported hearing a loud bang and seeing clouds of dust. One told Corriere della Sera: “I saw a worker fall.”
Firefighters flew a drone through a window to inspect the site.
One worker inside at the time of the first collapse said he escaped from a balcony. “It was not safe. I just want to go home,” said the man, white dust covering his uniform, who gave his name as Ottaviano and his age as 67.
Elena, from the UK, who like others did not want to give her last name, works at Shamrock, a pub with views of the tower from its outside seating area. She said she had been preparing to open the pub when the first collapse happened.
“It felt a bit like an earthquake,” she said. “I saw a man trying to get out by walking down the scaffolding – I didn’t realise people were inside working on it.”
Sue and Don, a couple from the UK, had been eating breakfast at a restaurant in front of the monument earlier in the morning when they heard loud drilling. “It seemed they were drilling deeply into the building and we wondered what they could be doing,” Sue said.
Caterina, who was born in the Italian capital, was among the large crowd of onlookers gathered at the scene. “I have never experienced anything like this in central Rome before,” she said.
Queen Paglinawan was working in a nearby gelato shop when she heard two loud noises in quick succession. “I was working and then I heard some like falling, and then I saw the tower collapse in a diagonal way,” said Paglinawan, 27, as yet another collapse occurred in the background.
Viktoria Braeu, a student from Germany, passed by the scene just as the collapse during the firefighters’ rescue happened. “We were just at the Colosseum … and we were just walking to get some food. And then we were like: ‘It’s probably not long until it’s going to go down,’ and then it just started erupting,” said Braeu, 18.
The area of the Forum and Piazza Venezia, which is continuously packed with tourists and traffic, was cordoned off. Gualtieri and Italy’s culture minister, Alessandro Giuli, were at the scene.
The Torre dei Conti was built in the 13th century by Richard Conti, brother of Pope Innocent III, as a fortified residence for his family. It was damaged in an earthquake in 1349 and there were collapses in the 17th century.
The restoration works are being financed by funds from the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund in order to make the building more secure.
Agence France-Presse, Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report
