Medieval tower COLLAPSES in central Rome - worker dies after being trapped inside

Footage from the Italian capital earlier on Monday showed how the tower crashed to the ground in two separate stages.

The worker had been inside the collapsed structure for 11 hours before he was rescued by emergency services late on Monday.

He was then taken to hospital in a serious condition, police said, before succumbing to his injuries later on.

Another worker, Gaetano La Manna, was discharged from hospital this evening - he told reporters: "I'm better. I heard a bang and everything came crashing down, everything collapsed."

The Torre dei Conti had initially collapsed at around 10.30am GMT.

Tourists looked on as smoke billowed from the 13th-century building - before it fell for the second time around 90 minutes later.

Clouds of dust shot from the tower's windows, while the sound of collapsing masonry could also be heard.

The tower was undergoing restoration work.

The local fire department's Lamberto Giannini confirmed that after the first collapse, firefighters "put up some protection" around the trapped worker in a bid to shielded him from the second collapse.

Now, the Rome Public Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into the collapse.

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Prosecutors are set to investigate negligence, and will bring in technical experts to work out exactly how the building fell.

In a sick political twist to the tragedy, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: "As long as the Italian government continues to waste taxpayers' money on Ukraine, Italy will collapse entirely, from its economy to the towers."

Deputy PM Antonio Tajani replied: "This tragedy has struck the Italian people and has nothing to do with the war.

"These are despicable comments that we reject. These statements are vulgar, to say the least.

"When there's a disaster, you can't speculate on people still under the rubble or on injured workers.

"We've never done that; whenever there's been a disaster that has struck the Russian Federation, we've always shown solidarity.

"These statements are shameful and unacceptable in a civilised country."