Vincenzo, a 10-year-old boy, drowned after falling into an artesian well 15 meters deep in the countryside of Palazzolo Acreide, in the province of Syracuse. A tragedy that brings to mind that of Alfredino Rampi, who died in June 43 years ago in a similar well in Vermicino, near Rome. The tragedy occurred in the Falabia district. The boy was taking part in a summer camp for children with cognitive and motor disabilities. He was accompanying his disabled brother to the summer camp organized by the Anffas Palazzolo Acreide Doniamo Sorrisi Foundation. For days, able-bodied and disabled children had been involved in excursions and integration activities such as growing vegetables and cooking workshops. Yesterday, a trip was planned to the small educational farm where the tragedy occurred. According to an initial reconstruction by the Syracuse Carabinieri and firefighters, the victim climbed onto the sheet metal cover of the well. He was playing on the artifact when the metal sheet gave way, causing him to fall into the well. At that time the water covered seven of the 15 meters of depth.
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According to witnesses, an operator from the association immediately noticed the fall and immediately ran to try to save the child. With the help of a rope, the 54-year-old woman tried to lower herself into the well, getting stuck. The firefighters with specialists from the Alpine river speleo unit saved her. The woman is in shock and has some moderately serious injuries. For the child, however, there was nothing that could be done. The firefighters recovered him now lifeless. Vincenzo lived in Palazzolo Acreide. The parents, two ecological operators who occasionally work for the Syracuse municipality, the mayor Salvatore Gallo and many people who knew little Vincenzo arrived on site immediately. The dynamics of the tragedy are still to be clarified: investigators are trying to reconstruct the moments before the fall to try to trace the causes.
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The Syracuse prosecutor’s office, led by prosecutor Sabrina Gambino, has opened a case for manslaughter and the area has been seized. In Avellino another tragedy involved another child, crushed by a table. The accident occurred in a garden of the house in a countryside area in the municipality of Montemarano. The child was playing when, for entirely accidental reasons, he was crushed by a heavy iron table, dying instantly. The body, initially transported to the hospital awaiting instructions from the Avellino prosecutor’s office for a possible autopsy, was released and handed over to the family for the funeral.
