ROME -- A homicide investigation has been opened up after 37 year old Tiziana Laudani fell ten metres down a grate in a car par near Via Tiburtina, police said.

 The incident occurred late on Tuesday night above an underground car park, in an abandoned construction area near Piazza San Giuseppe Artigiano. Investigators reported that the woman was with a friend at the time, a 38 year old Algerian male who was also wounded. According to the man’s reports of the evening, it was the first time that the two had decided to go into this “totally abandoned area.”

 Rome’s Public Prosecution Office launched an investigation into the alleged offense of manslaughter on Wednesday, but details of the process are still unknown. Prosecutor Giovanni Musarò has called for an autopsy to be carried out on the woman’s body in order to determine her cause of death, which was arranged to take place soon after the incident occurred.

 The area of the woman’s fall was reportedly very badly fenced off to the public, and has been repeatedly been described by local residents as dangerous. The woman and her friend were walking through the area in total darkness, and therefore were not able to see clearly what they were treading on. The grate which they were standing on, which was covering a hole of at least ten metres, reportedly fell through moments after they stepped on it.

 The woman died on the spot while the man was taken to the Policlinico Umberto I hospital. Prosecutors have completed sectioned off the area for further investigation.

 se