Rome, Italy - An Italian man had to be rescued after becoming trapped in a collapsed tunnel near the Vatican, suspected of being part of a gang burrowing its way to a nearby bank ahead of the August 15 long weekend, police had said.
Firefighters spent eight hours digging him out from under a road in the west of Rome, before he was finally freed and taken to hospital.
“Two people from Naples were arrested for resisting a public official and two, from Rome, for damage” to public property, a police spokesman told AFP.
The rescued man, one of the two Romans, remains in hospital, he said without giving an update on his condition.
“We are still investigating, we do not exclude that they are thieves, it is one of the theories,” he said.
For Italian newspapers, however, the motive was clear, noting the tunnel was found near a bank ahead of the August 15 long weekend, when residents traditionally head out of town and much of Rome becomes empty.
“The hole gang,” headlined the Corriere della Sera daily, while La Stampa said: “They dig a tunnel to rob a bank, and one of them is buried underground.”
The man brought out alive on a stretcher, after a day-long operation involving dozens of emergency service workers using mechanical diggers on Thursday.
The tunnel began underneath an empty shop that had recently been rented.
“We all thought that the people there were renovating the place. So, we had no suspicion and we did not hear noises either,” a resident, Michele, who lives in the same building told AFP.
With a new logo and eyes on the metaverse, Tommy Hilfiger returned to New York's Fashion Week, presenting a collection that seeks to reinvent his brand.
The American designer had not shown a collection on the catwalks of New York in three years, among the heavy-hitters including Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein who opted out.
"We started the brand in New York -- it is my home," Hilfiger told AFP, explaining his decision to return.
While the designer grants Paris the distinction of global fashion capital, he says New York is at its epicenter, for "pop culture, fashion or music, entertainment, celebrity."
His show on Sunday drew inspiration from Andy Warhol, who Hilfiger dubbed the world's pop art king.
Although most labels are presenting their spring-summer 2023 collections, Hilfiger chose to show a fall collection that better reflected the current changing temperatures -- and also allowed spectators to purchase items in real time.
- Back to basics -
Persistent showers threatened the outdoor show on the banks of the East River, as fog obscured Manhattan's skyscrapers in the distance.
But between a DJ, drag queen performance and Travis Barker on the drums, those in attendance could be distracted from getting soaked.
As a remix of Beyonce's latest hit "Break My Soul" with Madonna's "Vogue" pumped in the background, Hilfiger introduced a return to form, with new takes on the horizontally striped sweatshirts and polos, or large-checked coats, that saw him reinvent prep and embrace hip hop in the 1990s and early 2000s.
To accessorize the classics the designer showed a playful line of ties, long-sleeved gloves, large scarves and heavy necklaces, which adorned a diverse parade of models spanning gender and body type.
"I went back to my archive with my design team," said the designer whose brand, like Calvin Klein, is owned by the Dutch group PVH, and whose global retail sales notched $9.3 billion in 2021.
"And we took everything that was great 25-30 years ago and made it relevant for today."
- Metaverse -
Sunday's novelties included a new Hilfiger monogram, although the brand's iconic logo is still in circulation.
And to add a final touch of modernity, a parallel, virtual show took place simultaneously on the metaverse, on the video game platform Roblox that's populated with avatars.
"If you look at the millions of gamers in the world -- many of them in Asia, by the way -- you're reaching an audience that you would not normally reach through physical fashion," Hilfiger said.
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© Agence France-Presse