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Prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation over the death of a worker trapped when a medieval monument in central Rome partly collapsed.
Octav Stroici, 66, was rescued on Monday night after 11 hours under fallen masonry but died of his injuries at the city’s Umberto I hospital. Romanian foreign affairs officials, who said he came from their country, thanked rescuers for their efforts to save him during a long, complex and delicate operation.
Rome’s council announced that a day of mourning for Stroici would be held on Wednesday.
Lamberto Giannini, the city’s prefect, said: “The [rescue] operation lasted a long time because every time a part of the body was freed there was additional rubble that covered it.”
Stroici, from Suceava in northern Romania, had lived with his family in Italy for more than 30 years, La Repubblica reported. “He was an exquisite, calm and very good person,” a colleague told the newspaper.
Stroici had been among a team of 11 undertaking restoration works at the 29-metre Torre dei Conti, near the Colosseum, when it suffered two collapses on Monday.
Another worker, Gaetano La Manna, 66, was taken to San Giovanni hospital with injuries but discharged on Monday night, according to Corriere della Sera. Two others were rescued by firefighters using aerial ladders before the second collapse occurred, trapping Stroici inside.
They were employees of specialist restoration companies hired by the council to make the monument more secure under a project financed by the EU’s post-pandemic recovery fund.
The area around the 13th-century tower, which was built as a fortified family residence by Richard Conti, brother of Pope Innocent III, remained cordoned off on Tuesday as investigators investigated the cause of the collapse.
Curious tourists gathered at the site, some filming and taking selfies.
Rome’s cultural heritage office said the landmark had been closed since 2007 but was due to reopen next year after repairs costing almost €7m (£6.2m). The aim was to create a museum dedicated to the Roman Forum and provide tours of the tower and its underground rooms.
In a statement, the office added that “structural investigations, load tests and core sampling were conducted to verify the static suitability of the structure” and that the checks had “confirmed the necessary safety conditions” for restorations to begin.
There is speculation that the building’s stability could have been affected by an earthquake of magnitude 3.3 that struck the Lazio coastline close to Anzio on Saturday night and which was felt in some areas of the Italian capital. Others cited the construction of an underground station at nearby Piazza Venezia.
“It makes me afraid to take the metro,” said Elena Cerchi, who works at a pharmacist close to the Torre dei Conti. “It is extremely sad. Rome is fragile and it feels very risky to be carrying out these big jobs in the centre.”
The incident has reignited the debate on workplace safety in Italy, with Cgil, the country’s biggest union, blaming poor safety standards. According to the union, an average of three lives are lost each day in workplace accidents.
“In a healthy country, Octav, aged 66, wouldn’t have found himself on a construction site performing demanding, intense and dangerous tasks to earn a living,” said Natale Di Cola, who heads Cgil’s Rome and Lazio unit. “All of this must change.”
Prosecutors have opened an investigation into culpable disaster and manslaughter.
