ROME — Rome’s Colosseum was closed to the public on Wednesday for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic, after a technician fell to his death, Italian authorities said.

According to Italy’s Culture Ministry, Andrea Moretti, 22, was a specialist rope worker at the landmark. He was suspended above the highest point of the Colosseum when he fell approximately 30 feet, CNN reported.

Moretti was installing a new lighting system during an overnight shift when he fell, according to ABC News.

“It is a tragic event that leaves us shocked and stunned,” Italy’s Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli said in a statement, offering condolences to Moretti’s family over what he called “the senseless death of a young man engaged in work.”

Other than the pandemic, the Colosseum has previously closed for only a few hours a day, CNN reported. It was shuttered for a few hours when President Barack Obama visited in 2014, and it was closed last October for a prayer for peace, according to the cable news outlet.

Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said that the government was deeply shocked and saddened by the death, The Associated Press reported. He also called for the cause of the accident to be determined as quickly as possible.

“Dying at the age of 22 is unacceptable -- even more so when it happens in the workplace,” she said in a statement.

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