Rome — An Italian man needed to be rescued after changing into trapped in a collapsed tunnel close to the Vatican, suspected of being a part of a gang burrowing its option to a close-by financial institution, police mentioned Friday.
Firefighters spent eight hours digging him out from below a street within the west of Rome, earlier than he was lastly freed on Thursday night and brought to hospital.
"Two folks from Naples had been arrested for resisting a public official and two, from Rome, for harm" to public property, a police spokesman advised AFP.
The rescued man, one of many two Romans, stays in hospital, he mentioned with out giving an replace on his situation.
"We're nonetheless investigating, we don't exclude that they're thieves, it is among the theories," he mentioned.
For Italian newspapers, nevertheless, the motive was clear, noting the tunnel was discovered close to a financial institution forward of the August 15 lengthy weekend, when residents historically head out of city and far of Rome turns into empty.
"The outlet gang," headlined the Corriere della Sera each day, whereas La Stampa mentioned: "They dig a tunnel to rob a financial institution, and certainly one of them is buried underground."
An AFP reporter on the scene Thursday noticed the person introduced out alive on a stretcher, after a day-long operation involving dozens of emergency service employees utilizing mechanical diggers.
The tunnel started beneath an empty store that had lately been rented.
"All of us thought that the folks there have been renovating the place. So, we had no suspicion and we didn't hear noises both," a resident, Michele, who lives in the identical constructing advised AFP.