MOSCOW: A worker has died after falling down an elevator shaft at a stadium being built in St. Petersburg for the 2018 World Cup, according to the Russian news agency R-Sport.

Ekaterina Giginyak, a spokeswoman for stadium contractor Metrostroy St Petersburg, told R-Sport the unnamed employee "somehow fell down an elevator shaft and suffered fatal impact injuries."

Investigations are under way by Russian law enforcement and labor inspectors, Giginyak was quoted as saying.

There have been at least eight fatalities among workers at the St. Petersburg stadium, including three in the last 12 months.

The stadium has also been plagued by cost increases and delays.