Up to 31 people were feared dead following the collapse of a five-storey apartment block in central Rome early yesterday. The building, which has 16 apartments, is in the Portuense area, near the Porta Portese market. At least 18 bodies were recovered by last night.
Although rescue workers had suggested that no one who was in the apartment block when it collapsed at 3 a.m. yesterday could be expected to survive, two people were pulled from the rubble late last night.
Two inquiries - one initiated by the Rome State Prosecutor's Office and the other by Rome City Council - immediately began. These will investigate the likely "structural collapse" of the 1953 built block.
Architectural experts yesterday suggested that land subsidence, renovation work on the ground floor or structural inadequacies in the original design were possible explanations.
Among the many public figures to express their sympathy for the victims was Pope John Paul II, who spoke of his "profound sadness" during his weekly public audience at the Vatican.
The Italian Prime Minister, Mr Massimo D'Alema, visited the scene, as did the mayor of Rome, Mr Francesco Rutelli. The mayor said: "It's a horrendous thing to think that a five-storey building can crumble into a five-foot high pile of rubble and that under the rubble, people are buried. It's just terrible, atrocious . . . There's no point trying to work out theories at to why this happened just now, the one thing that is certain is that it wasn't caused by an explosion."
Rescue workers arriving on the site early yesterday were faced with the vision of a building which appeared to have been literally flattened, folding in on itself and killing almost all those who slept within.