Suspected bank robber rescued from tunnel near Vatican

An Italian man has been rescued from a collapsed tunnel near the Vatican and police suspect he could have been burrowing his way into a bank.

He is now recovering in hospital after firefighters spent eight hours digging him out from under a road.

But he may now need to dig himself out of further trouble, as police have arrested him and a second man for "resisting a public official".

Police believe he may have been part of a gang attempting to break into a bank.

"We are still investigating, we do not exclude that they are thieves, it is one of the theories," a police spokesman told the AFP news agency.

The pair were also detained for damaging public property.

Local media believe the motive to be clear, noting that the tunnel was found near a bank shortly before the 15 August long weekend, when much of the city empties.

"The hole gang," read the headline in the Corriere della Sera daily.