Tourist killed by falling stone (5)

(ANSA) - Florence, October 19 - A 52-year-old Spanish tourist was killed Thursday after being struck by an "architectural element" that fell off the top of a nave in Florence's Santa Croce Basilica, sources said.
    A fairly large piece of a capital came crashing down from 20 metres up and hit the man on the head, they said.
    Medical teams rushed to the spot but were unable to revive the man, who was visiting the church with his wife.
    The piece of stone, a "peduccio" bolstering the base of wooden structures, fell off the right-hand transept of the basilica, a superintendency expert said.
    The expert said there were no other known "critical elements" in the church, which was "subject to periodic checks".
    The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross) is one of the Tuscan capital's best-known churches.
    The basilica is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 metres south-east of the Duomo. The site, when first chosen, was in marshland outside the city walls. It is the burial place of some of the most illustrious Italians, such as Michelangelo, Galileo, Machiavelli, the poet Foscolo, the philosopher Gentile and the composer Rossini, thus it is known also as the Temple of the Italian Glories