Two Catholic nuns were taken to hospital Monday after spending three days trapped inside a lift without food or water at their Rome convent in searing temperatures.
The 58-year-old Irish nun and a 68-year-old nun from New Zealand were rescued after a cleaner called police when she arrived for work at the convent on Monday and no one answered the bell.
Police entered the building and on hearing the women's cries managed to free them from the lift.
The nuns were said to be weak, disoriented and dehydrated. Rome is currently in the grip of a heatwave with daytime temperatures of over 30C.
The lift broke down on Friday but no one else was at the convent and the nuns did not have mobile phones to call for help.
The convent on Rome's via Aurelia belongs to the Marist missionary order and is only used as temporary accommodation for nuns returning from overseas.
