Worker trapped under collapsed medieval tower in Rome dies

Parts of the 29-metre (95 ft) Torre dei Conti crashed to the ground at around 1030 GMT on Monday and a second collapse followed 90 minutes later, videos posted on social media and Reuters video showed.

Clouds of dust came billowing out of the windows to the sound of collapsing masonry. A second incident took place while firefighters were working on the structure with aerial ladders, trying to extract the trapped man.

The rescuers were left unhurt by the second collapse.

MAN PULLED FROM RUBBLE AFTER 11 HOURS

Fatal accidents at work are a long-standing curse for Italy, with 575 deaths in the first nine months of 2025, according to state agency INAIL.

The Rome Prosecutor's office has opened an investigation for manslaughter, negligent disaster, and serious injury, a judicial source said.

The victim was eventually pulled out of the tower late on Monday, after about 11 hours, but was in a state of cardiac arrest when he arrived at the hospital and was declared dead early on Tuesday, a hospital statement said.

"Despite the sustained efforts of the medical teams in Rome, Octav Stroici, who had been trapped under the rubble of a historic building undergoing restoration works, has sadly passed away," the Romanian Foreign Ministry said on X. Italian media said he was aged 66.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also expressed her condolences.

A second worker, also Romanian, was rescued 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.

TOWER BUILT BY 13TH CENTURY POPE

The tower, which was due to be converted into a museum and conference space, is located halfway along the Via dei Fori Imperiali, the broad avenue that leads from central Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum.

Due to the EU-funded restoration work, costing almost 7 million euros ($8 million), the area around the tower was closed off to pedestrians.

Preliminary checks on the structure certified that it was safe to intervene on it, the Superintendency for Rome's cultural heritage said in a statement.

The building remains standing, with significant internal damage.

It once hosted city hall offices but has not been in use since 2006 and was being worked on as part of a four-year renovation project due to end next year, according to Rome city authorities.

During the years in which it was abandoned, it fell into "a general state of disrepair," with the collapse of some false ceilings, decayed doors and windows, and water infiltration on the top floor, city authorities said on their website.

The building was commissioned by Pope Innocent III for his family in the early 13th century, and was originally twice as high, but was scaled down after damage from earthquakes in the 14th and 17th centuries.($1 = 0.8575 euros)

(Reporting by Angelo Amante, additional reporting by Alan Charlish in Warsaw, Sara Rossi in Milan, writing by Alvise Armellini and Sara Rossi; Editing by Conor Humphries and Keith Weir)