Italian singer Lucio Dalla dies on tour in Switzerland

Italian singer Lucio Dalla, who started out as a jazz clarinettist in the 1960s and went on to perform with opera star Luciano Pavarotti, has died of a heart attack in Switzerland at the age of 68.

Dalla died in Montreux where he was giving a series of concerts, Italian media reported.

Born in Bologna on March 4, 1943, he released his first album in 1966 with a band called "The Flippers".

His album "Lucio Dalla" in 1979 sold more than a million copies and he acquired national fame.

He wrote the song Caruso for Pavarotti — a homage to opera legend Enrico Caruso — which sold nine million copies.

"I am distraught," Pavarotti’s widow Nicoletta Mantovani said.

"He was a great friend of Luciano. A great artist and a great man with an enormous sensitivity. He was close to me in difficult times," she said.