A Japanese tourist has died after falling from the iconic Pantheon in Rome in front of his horrified daughter.
Morimasa Hibino, 69, lost his balance and fell from the outer wall of the ancient monument in the Italian capital, local media reported.
Emergency services had to force a gate open outside of the Roman temple as they rushed inside, before finding he man dead in the ditch.
The man was understood to be visiting Rome with his daughter, who told police he fell after being overcome by a sudden illness.
A passerby priest alerted officials, local newspaper la Repubblica reported, after the man is said to have fell on Friday at around 9:50pm local time
According to police, the man was sitting on the edge of the wall before dropping from the 22-foot wall.
Officers have also obtained footage showing the place where the man was sitting, reports say.
The Pantheon – meaning ‘to every god’ – is the most intact of all Roman structures in the Italian capital.
It was commissioned as a temple to all the gods of Ancient Rome, and rebuilt by Emperor Hadrian in about 126 AD.
The temple has been in continuous use throughout its history and, since the 7th century, has been used as a Roman Catholic church.
It was built on top of an earlier temple from the rein of Augustus in as far back as 27BC.
One of Italy’s most visited monuments, it is famous for its oculus, the hole in its giant dome.
Entrance was free until 2023, but there is now a ticketing system costing $5.
More than 4 million tourists visited the site in 2024 with with long queues often forming in Piazza della Rotonda outside the monument.
It is not the only tragedy to have hit tourists in Rome this year.
A 55-year-old woman from Spain died in March after falling from a high wall at the Spanish Steps.
In April, Grant Paterson, a 54-year-old Scottish tourist, died after suffering severe burns in a suspected gas explosion in the building he was staying.
He had arrived in the Italian capital a few days prior to the incident and had visited sites including the Trevi Fountain, the Colosseum and the Pantheon.
There has been a boom in tourism in Rome since the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Last year, the city set a record when it saw 22 million arrivals.
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