Latest Pompeii collapse: Garden wall gives way

[May 10, 2011]  ROME (AP) -- Italian officials at the volcanic archaeological site of Pompeii say a garden wall ringing an ancient house has collapsed.

Earlier this month, a frescoed building where gladiators used to train for combat crumbled into a pile of rocks and dust. At the time, officials said many ancient buildings at the popular tourist site were at risk of failing.

The latest structure to collapse is a 7-meter long (25-foot) section of a wall around an ancient building known as the House of the Moralist. No one was injured, since the wall was in an area off-limits to the public.

Pompeii officials on Tuesday are blaming rain for the crumbling of the wall.

The ancient Roman city, buried by Vesuvius' eruption in 79 A.D., is located near modern-day Naples.

[Associated Press]

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