An American tourist underwent emergency surgery after being impaled on an iron railing at Rome’s Colosseum, apparently while trying to get a better view of the monument, Italian media said.
Shocked onlookers saw the man, a 47-year-old US citizen living in Taiwan, suspended from one of the railings that seal off the arches at the base of the amphitheatre’s outer ring. The man, who had suffered a deep wound to his lower back and lost significant blood, was heard screaming before losing consciousness. The incident occurred at around 5pm on Friday. Il Messaggero described it as “a horrible scene”.
Medics, Carabinieri and finance police arrived quickly. After sedating the man, rescuers freed him in a 20-minute operation, tightly bandaged his wound, and transported him to San Giovanni hospital, where he underwent surgery and received around 80 stitches. He was declared out of danger later that evening.
Carabinieri questioned him in hospital, but he was unable to speak. The motive for scaling the fence remains unclear. Media have speculated he climbed for a better view. Friends, questioned by police, were unable to explain his actions. The man had been on holiday in Rome with family and friends and had visited several landmarks.
The Colosseum’s remaining 31 lower arches, once entrances to arena seating, are blocked off by iron fences that taper into sharp spikes. The latest incident recalled a case in 2019 when a 26-year-old man from Foggia died after slipping and severing his femoral artery while climbing a fence at the site during what was described at the time as an illegal party.
Completed in AD 80 under the Flavian emperors, the Colosseum—commonly described as the largest amphitheatre built across the Roman Empire—hosted gladiatorial games and hunting spectacles for tens of thousands of spectators. Today, visitors tour exhibitions, the arena and the underground “hypogeum” passageways where gladiators once prepared for battle.
The site is administered by the Colosseum Archaeological Park, which also includes the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. It frequently tops tables for Italy’s most visited state-managed heritage site, drawing a record 12 million visitors in the first ten months of 2024.
The tourism boom has coincided with a rise in misbehaviour. Recent cases of visitors carving names into the monument’s walls have sparked outrage. In August, after a 19-year-old Ukrainian tourist was arrested for inscribing his initials, Rome’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, said: “In a city full of treasures that are world heritage sites, there certainly cannot be room for thugs and idiots.”
