One of Italy's best known stuntmen has been killed while simulating a fatal work accident for a television medical drama in Milan.
Investigators think that Nicolo' Ricci, 30, may have hit his head against scaffolding as he carried out a six-metre stunt fall onto an inflatable mattress for an outdoor shoot at a steel works near the city on Thursday.
Ricci was working on an episode of a new series called Medical Emergency Department (DEM), which state broadcaster RAI has scheduled to begin in September.
Based on a Spanish medical drama called Hospital Central, the series focuses on the work and personal lives of staff at a casualty department of a fictional hospital.
The stuntman and a colleague had already made the jump once without incident but the director asked them to repeat the scene, in which two men working on the restoration of a building fall to their deaths.
Ricci suffered head trauma during the second take, which was captured on film in front of a 30-strong television crew, and died in hospital several hours later.
The Turin-born stuntman had been in the business for seven years.
''He was an expert and had done various films as well as all the earlier episodes of the series - often performing in scenes that were a lot more dangerous than yesterday's,'' said one of the television crew.
