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A 55-year-old Moroccan agricultural worker, identified as Taher Haddad, died on Tuesday afternoon while harvesting melons in Borgocarbonara, in the northern Italian province of Mantua.
One of the main lines of investigation is that he suffered a medical emergency linked to the extreme heat.
Italian Carabinieri from the Gonzaga station, together with officials from the workplace health and safety authority, are continuing their investigation to determine the exact circumstances of the incident.
Reacting to the tragedy, Italy's CGIL trade union said the situation in the province of Mantua has become «a real massacre», pointing to the deaths of three workers, including one killed while travelling to work, as well as another worker who fell into a coma after suffering a heat-related illness.
«Workers are still dying in the fields as they did a hundred years ago, amid the same indifference that prevailed back then,» said Michele Orezzi, the union's general secretary in Mantua.
«We have come to regard the death of a worker on days when heatwave health alerts are in effect as something normal. That is unacceptable,» he added.
He also criticized existing measures to limit outdoor work during periods of extreme heat, arguing that they have failed to produce the desired results. «These measures are ineffective because monitoring remains insufficient, particularly in sectors where violations and exploitation persist. Agricultural workers continue to face serious risks,» he said.
