The Colosseum will remain closed until Thursday after technician Andrea Moretti, 22, died overnight, falling several metres while installing new lighting. Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli also suspended all construction and maintenance work until further notice.
Giuli first announced a partial closure, drawing protests from Italy's largest union, CGIL. Its Rome chief, Natale di Cola, said “humanity comes before tourists” and called on Giuli to explain the circumstances of Moretti's accident.
The incident came less than a year after a Romanian worker died last November, trapped for hours beneath rubble from a partially collapsed medieval tower near the Colosseum.
