Two missing after marble quarry falls down in Italy

Two quarrymen were reported as missing in Italy on Thursday after a wall of marble in the quarry where they were working in central Italy collapsed, local media said.

Another worker was rescued after firefighters found him hanging by a rope, while a fourth man, reportedly the quarry's responsible, was taken to hospital in a state of shock, ANSA news agency said.

The accident happened in a large quarry in the Apuan Alps, a mountain range in Tuscany region which contains immense deposits of marble, named "marble of Carrara" after the name of a nearby city, and considered as one of the most precious marbles in the world.

According to first reconstructions, the three men were on top of a mountain to check the marble cutting when a wall of rock, almost 2,000 tons of marble, suddenly crumbled, and two of them who were not wearing a harness fell down for about 30 meters along with their cutting machine.

The two quarrymen, aged 55 and 46, were reportedly buried by marble slabs and other debris.

The search for them was expected to continue through the night, ANSA said. Meanwhile firefighters were at work to secure the area, and an investigation was opened to ascertain possible responsibilities, Rai state television said.

Deaths from work accidents in Italy have dropped over the past few years, though hundreds of fatalities are still registered every year.

Tougher penalties for breaking work safety regulations were introduced in 2008 reforms, but experts say it is not enough.

"What happened in Carrara today is another terrible tragedy for the labor world," a senator of ruling Democratic Party (PD) who is part of the parliament's work accidents commission, Daniele Borioli, said.

"It is clear that we need to be increasingly committed to tackle at their roots the unsafe conditions that are still putting in peril the health and the life of workers," he stressed. Endit