At least a dozen coffins were left precariously dangling in the air after a four-storey building containing caskets and funeral urns collapsed.
For the second time this year, the Poggioreale Monumental Cemetery — the largest in Naples, Italy — caved on Monday afternoon.
Dramatic photos show the coffins hanging on by a thread out of their niches.
It’s unclear why the marble columbarium crumbled but critics blame the poor management of cemeteries in the southern Italy city, nearby work on an underground metro line and rain.
An investigation has been launched into the Chapel of Resurrection in the cemetery’s Porta Balestrieri area and authorities closed the site yesterday.
Dozens of graves were destroyed as others spilt out of the building, with one local councillor claiming there was a ‘bang and a dense cloud of dust’ beforehand.
Vincenzo Santagada said according to The Guardian: ‘As an administration, we are taking care of all the necessary formalities.’
Investigators are speaking with 20 people over their alleged involvement in the subway construction work.
Ressurection suffered a similar collapse on January 5, according to local reports, which destroyed more than 300 graves.
The Naples Prosecutor’s Office ordered the building’s closure at the time.
Amid finger-pointing over why the building collapsed again, one regional councillor for Campania said the city’s cemeteries have been overlooked for years.
Francesco Emilio Borelli, of the Europa Verde (Europe Greens) party, said on Facebook: ‘It is a critical and unacceptable situation.
‘For too many years the Neapolitan cemeteries have been mismanaged and left to fend for themselves, falling prey to swindlers and profiteers.
‘This is the result.’
As I recall, there was a recent huge earthquake in Italy…