Twelve people, seven of whom were children, were taken to hospital for treatment after being hurt when a stairway collapsed at the Globe Theatre in Rome’s Villa Borghese park on Thursday.
Fire brigade sources said the stairway gave way as people were on their way out after a show for school pupils.
A teacher said some of the students, all from the Saffo High School near Teramo, had fallen from the third and highest ring of the theatre; a height of three metres.
Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said he had been in contact with the management of the theatre. Apparently, maintenance work had been carried out on the stairway this summer.
The Globe Theatre in Villa Borghese park is a reconstruction of the London theatre of Shakespeare’s company. The mayor said the Globe would be closed and it was not certain when it would reopen.
