Carabinieri police on Tuesday made a court-ordered preventive seizure of areas of Italian shipbuilding company Fincantieri's shipyard at Montefalcone in northern Italy as part of a probe into alleged illegal waste management at the site.
Seven people including the former shipyard manager Carlo De Marco have been placed under investigation in the probe launched by local prosecutors in May 2013. The other suspects are subcontractors operating at the site.
Fincantieri said Tuesday it would take all appropriate legal measures to have the seizure repealed.
Meanwhile, it was "forced" to suspend all activities at the shipyard, it said.
Approximately 4,500 people are employed on the site including Fincantieri workers and employees of its subcontractors.
Of these, only those in charge of systems maintenance - roughly 100 people - will remain in service.
The probe concerns the use by subcontractors of a temporary dump made available by Fincantieri for storage of production waste prior to disposal. Prosecutors argue all the companies and not just Fincantieri needed proper authorisation to handle the waste - authorisation which they allegedly did not have.
The waste in question was not damaging to human health, Fincanieri said.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
