Russia has blamed Italy’s support for Ukraine for the partial collapse of a medieval tower in Rome, prompting outrage from the Italian government.

A Romanian worker died late on Monday after being trapped for 12 hours when the 13th-century Torre dei Conti, overlooking the ancient Forum, caved in, sending a cloud of dust and debris over tourists.

Maria Zakharova, a Kremlin spokeswoman, claimed that Italian infrastructure was crumbling because funds were being diverted to backing Ukraine’s war effort.

“As long as the Italian government keeps uselessly wasting taxpayers’ money, all of Italy will collapse, from the economy to its towers,” she said on Monday on her Telegram channel.

Firefighters rescuing a worker from a collapsed section of the Torre dei Conti in Rome.

Firefighters worked into the night to free a worker trapped in the Torre dei Conti, which had begun to collapse earlier in the day, below

ANGELO CARCONI/EPA

Onlookers watch as dust rises from the collapse of parts of the Torre dei Conti in Rome.

The Italian foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, summoned the Russian ambassador in protest and called Zakharova’s remarks vulgar. “These statements are shameful and unacceptable in a civil country,” he said.

Police and magistrates in Rome are investigating the partial collapse of the tower, which stands at the intersection of the busy Via Cavour and the pedestrianised road leading through the Roman Forum.

At 11.20am on Monday an external buttress of the 29m-tall tower crumbled, drawing crowds and firefighters, who used ladders to evacuate four men involved in the maintenance of the unoccupied structure.

One of the men, a 64-year-old, was taken to hospital with a head injury and is in a critical condition. At 1pm another collapse occurred inside the building, affecting the stairwell and the roof and sending a cloud of dust billowing out through windows, just as rescuers were trying to extract a fifth worker from inside.

Carabinieri securing an area shrouded in dust and smoke after a part of the medieval "Torre dei Conti" tower collapsed in Rome.

The emergency services hastily erected barriers to keep onlookers away from the tower

TIZIANA FABI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A medieval tower in Rome near the Roman Forum partially collapsed during renovation work.

FRANCESCO BENVENUTI/LAPRESSE

Ladders were hastily withdrawn, forcing officials to plot how they could rescue the man as the danger grew of the entire structure collapsing.

Lamberto Giannini, prefect of Rome, told the state television network Rai that the worker had been “pulled out and taken to hospital by ambulance” at 10pm but that he was in “a serious condition”.

Earlier he had described “a very complex situation for the firefighters” and had hoped for a positive outcome for the trapped worker, said to be in his sixties. He later died in hospital.

Giannini said that after the initial collapse firefighters had “put up some protection” around the trapped man, so when the second collapse happened, “they obviously shielded him”.

Onlookers were kept at a distance by hastily erected barriers. The mayor, Gualtieri, and the Italian culture minister, Alessandro Giuli, met the workers who had emerged from the structure.

Built in 1238 by Richard Conti, the brother of Pope Innocent III, the tower was one of many tall narrow structures built by wealthy Romans in the Middle Ages. It was once clad with marble pilfered from Roman-era buildings in the Forum, which was the heart of ancient Rome.

Originally 50 to 60 metres tall, the tower’s height was reduced by collapses caused by earthquakes in the 14th and 17th centuries. Today it still looms over the Forum, hitherto mostly ignored by tourists.

The workers in the tower were completing a €6.9 million restoration project to create a new museum space.