Repubblica station to reopen after eight months.

Rome's Repubblica metro station is to reopen at 05.30 on Wednesday 26 June, after being closed for eight months, following the collapse of the station's escalators on 23 October.

Announcing the news via Twitter, the city's mayor Virginia Raggi apologised for the "inconvenience that citizens and traders have had to face in recent months due to the extraordinary maintenance work."

However it has been reported in local media that only four of the six escalators will reopen on 26 June, while traders complain that they have lost 70 per cent of their business over the last 246 days.

The accident in October occurred when one of the station's escalators failed, causing it to accelerate excessively, dragging down dozens of people at speed.

Photo ANSA/PERI-PERCOSSI