2 Dead in Collapse at Italian Complex Tied to Mob

At least a dozen injured after passageway crumbles in suburb of Naples
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 24, 2024 9:20 AM CDT
2 Dead, Kids in ICU After Italian Walkway Collapse
Stock photo of a complex in Scampia.   (Getty Images/enzodebernardo)

Two people are dead and at least a dozen are injured after a third-floor pedestrian walkway collapsed late Monday at a housing project on the outskirts of Naples, Italy. Per the Guardian, a 29-year-old man, identified as Roberto Abbruzzo, and 35-year-old woman, Margherita della Ragione, were killed in the suburb of Scampia, at the dilapidated Le Vele (The Sails) housing complex. The AP reports that at least seven of those hurt were children between the ages of 2 and 10; two of the children were reportedly in the ICU.

The collapse at the complex, which was built in the '60s and '70s, took place at the only sail-shaped building left; all others have been demolished. CNN notes the slum's ties to organized crime, and how it became infamous thanks to Roberto Saviano's Gomorrah book, movie, and TV series, which detailed the Camorra mob. Members of that group operated out of the complex's apartments.

More than 800 people were squatting in the complex when the walkway collapsed, including 300 kids. They've since been evacuated to tent camps. The building has long been condemned, but people who lost their homes in a 1980 earthquake have been living there since. It's not clear what caused the walkway collapse. "In this hour of pain, my condolences go to the victims' families," Italian PM Giorgia Meloni said. (More Italy stories.)

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