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Couple die putting up balcony Christmas lights

A couple fell to their deaths from the balcony of their home in the northern Italian province of Novara as they put up Christmas lights on Monday afternoon.

Couple die putting up balcony Christmas lights
Photo: Sean Winters/Flickr

The husband, 66. was identified as Paolo Pedrizzetti, who became well known after capturing an iconic image during the 1977 riots in Milan, according to a report on Il Secolo XX.

He is reported to have fallen from a ladder while putting up Christmas lights on the seventh-floor balcony from their apartment in the town of Arona.

His wife, Raffaella, also 66, tried to help him but the pair fell over the balcony, which overlooked Barberi square, and plummeted to the ground, according to eyewitnesses.

“It was a tragic scene, nobody knew what to do,” Franco Filipetto, who was among the first people at the scene, was quoted by Il Secolo XX as saying.

“We heard their desperate cries, then we saw them on the ground, nobody could do anything.”

Pedrizzetti was still a student in Milan when he took a photo of a masked, armed protester in a shooting position during riots on 14th May 1977. The photo went onto become an iconic image of the era, and was often the subject of numerous studies and discussions.

Along with his wife, he later went on to become an architect, with studios in Novara and Milan. 

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