Five workers died on Monday in Sicily (I) after inhaling toxic gas while working in a wastewater treatment plant, firefighters and the mayor of the town said.
The victims were carrying out maintenance work when they began to feel unwell. Firefighters rescued the six people but were only able to resuscitate one, they said on the social network di Giacinto, mayor of Casteldaccia, a town near Palermo.
According to Giovanni di Giacinto, the workers breathed hydrogen sulfide, a natural gas often associated with waste treatment plants. A high concentration of this gas can cause breathing problems, convulsions, coma and then death.
Fatal accidents in the workplace regularly make the headlines in the Italian press and are at the heart of a debate on risk prevention.
In April, seven workers were killed in an explosion at a hydroelectric plant near Bologna. In February, the collapse of a concrete structure on the construction site of a supermarket in Florence killed five people.
