2 Dec 2010

More walls crumble at Pompeii

10:37 am on 2 December 2010

Two walls have crumbled at the ruins of Pompeii, in Italy - the latest of four collapses in a month.

The city was buried by an eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79AD. The site was accorded world heritage status by UNESCO in 1997.

A statement from Pompeii's archaeological superintendent said the collapse involved an area two metres high and three metres wide of a wall on the Via Stabiana.

A small chunk of a side room in the "House of the Small Lupanar" also fell.

The statement said both collapses were probably due to the heavy rains of the last few days.

On Tuesday, a section of a modern retaining wall in the "House of the Moralist" crumbled and the "House of the Gladiators" collapsed on 6 November.

Archaeologists, commentators and opposition politicians accuse the Government of neglect and mismanagement of the site.