Preliminary investigations into Friday's structural collapse at a building site in Florence that left four construction workers dead and a fifth person missing suggests that several criticalities came into play, public prosecutor Filippo Spiezia said on Monday.
It is "premature to make statements" concerning the circumstances of the collapse at the Esselunga supermarket construction site in Via Mariti construction site, Spiezia told reporters in the Tuscan regional capital.
However, "the very empirical fact that we gleaned from an initial inspection is that there were several critical issues," he added.
"We ascertained these the moment we went to the constructionsite," continued Spiezia, without giving any further details.
The public prosecutor also confirmed media reports that some of the foreign victims may have been irregular migrants.
"Initial checks have shown irregularities concerning the presence of some of the (foreign) workers on the national territory," he said.
However, Spiezia added that possible irregularities concerning contractual arrangements are "a different matter" and the subject of subsequent investigations.
Of the four workers confirmed dead, two were Moroccan, one was Tunisian and one Italian.
Only the Italian victim was easily identifiable while the others are being identified with the support of forensic scientists.
The fifth worker missing feared dead is also Moroccan.
Three Romanian workers were also injured in the collapse but their condition is not life threatening.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA