They crashed their own marriage.
The bride and groom spent their wedding night in a hospital bed after they and more than 30 of their guests fell 25 feet through the floor of their Italian reception venue.
Video from the former Giaccherino monastery in Pistoia, Tuscany, on January 13 shows guests dancing and jumping as music blares in the attic when a large hole suddenly opens.
Dozens of guests immediately fell to the ground below, while other partygoers stared at them — gasping and screaming in terror.
Among the dead were the newlyweds, Paolo Mugnaini and the Italian-American bride, Valerie Ybarra, who hails from Houston, Texas.
“Suddenly, I found myself in another dimension, in darkness, in emptiness,” Mugnaini told Corriere della Sera.
“For a moment, I heard bodies falling on top of me, along with all kinds of rubble, dust, debris.”
The bride and groom and their more than 30 guests fell 25 feet through the floor at their wedding ceremony. CEN
At first, the groom said he wasn’t sure what was going on.
“I have entered a terrifying whirlpool and I cannot direct myself,” he told a local newspaper.
“Then I found myself in front of my best friend. I called him, but he didn’t answer, his head had a big wound, a lot of blood. Only then did I begin to understand.
“I started screaming, calling Valerie, my wife. He was unresponsive and he seemed to have disappeared. I fear he has been buried by the rubble.”
But the two were later pictured holding hands in their hospital beds pushed side by side, while Mugnaini got IV fluids. They were released from the hospital the next day, officials said.
Thirty-seven others at the wedding also received medical treatment, with 28 still in hospital the next day, Tuscany’s local health authorities announced.
Thirty-nine people at the wedding received medical treatment. CEN
Two are in intensive care, including a child, although health officials say their conditions are not life-threatening.
Others are being evaluated for possible fractures, and a pregnant woman who fell is being examined by an OBGYN. Both she and her future child are expected to survive, according to Corriere della Sera.
Those who stayed at the scene were shocked by the unexpected collapse.
“I was shocked, I was in the room, screams were heard and this catastrophe happened,” the groom’s father, who was not identified, told Corriero Fiorentino.
“I didn’t see the floor collapse, I saw the hole. There was panic, we looked for where the person fell, after two or three minutes we found them.”
Genny, a waitress at the venue, explained that it was shrouded in dust, making it difficult to see the full scale of the disaster.
“We heard screams and desperate people crying,” he told Il Messaggero.
Mugnaini and Ybarra are now suing the venue, as local prosecutors investigate whether it was guilty of negligently causing the injuries and failing to complete the necessary work to remove the hazard.
“I have entered a terrifying whirlpool and I cannot direct myself,” said the groom. CEN
The former monastery is now closed as police investigate its structural integrity. They were seen examining the wood-paneled room where the party took place, which now had a near-perfect round hole in the floor.
The wedding appears to be the first time the former convent has used the attic for dancing, according to Corriere della Sera.
It previously used a larger, more secure room, the newspaper reported.
But the venue’s owners told Report Pistoia they did not understand how the collapse could have happened, describing it as a “tragic and unpredictable event.”
They added that they would cooperate fully with any investigation.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
