1 killed, 2 injured in Italy's church collapse

One worker was killed and two others were injured as a dome of a church under restoration in central Italy collapsed on Tuesday, local reports said.

The victim, aged 53 according to la Repubblica newspaper, was working for a local construction company repairing the church of Pietracatella, a town in Molise region, after it was damaged in a 2002 earthquake.

The man was reportedly married and was the father of two children. He lived with his family in a nearby town.

The two injured workers were rushed to hospital. "They appeared to be in serious conditions, but were conscious and asking for help," one of the rescuers was quoted as saying by ANSA news agency.

A local witness who entered the church after its partial collapse said that he saw two people who barely moved in the rubble beside a third person who was still and did not speak.

"As soon as we heard the noise we just walked in and saw that a dome in the right part of the building had collapsed. There was so much dust, you could not see anything," the witness said.

Molise President Paolo Di Laura Frattura was informed of the accident while the regional council was holding a meeting, which was suspended to allow authorities to rush to the spot along with police.

Pietracatella is located in southern Molise, on the border with Puglia, and counts around 1,600 inhabitants.

The Molise earthquake was a magnitude 5.4 shake that hit the regions of Molise and Puglia on Oct. 31 in 2002.

Most of the victims were children who died when a school in San Giuliano di Puglia, a town not far from Pietracatella, collapsed killing 27 students and one of their teachers.

Italy's highest court in 2012 upheld a five-year jail term for four architects and officials whose careless work led to the collapse of the school.

The then mayor of San Giuliano di Puglia, Antonio Borrelli, was sentenced to two years in jail. He himself had lost his little daughter in the school collapse. Endit