Woman dies after falling through lift door which opened to empty shaft

An investigation is underway

Clelia Ditano, 25, had been in an apartment building in the southern Italian town of Fasano when the tragic incident happened in the early hours of Monday morning (June 1).

According to local media, she had pressed the button to call the lift to the fourth floor. When the doors opened, she walked through without noticing the lift had not actually arrived, and was still docked on the first floor of the building.

She died on impact after landing on the roof of the lift.

Her father had alerted emergency services after he rang his daughter's phone and heard it coming from the lift shaft.

Emergency services rushed to the scene at around 8am, and recovered Ditano's body.

An investigation is underway to determine how the lift doors opened when the lift hadn't arrived.

An official told local media: "We can assume a malfunction of the locking system because the door should only open when the cabin is at the floor."

Tributes to Ditano have flooded in on her most recent Instagram post, shared just hours before she died, LBC reports.

One person commented: "Life is so unfair, rest in peace sweetheart"

Another wrote: "My love, my heart is in a million pieces."

A third said: "Rest in peace sweet angel. May your family survive this huge and unfair pain."