ROME, Feb 11 (Reuters) - One of the two Italian women murdered on the tropical Atlantic island state of Cape Verde last week was buried alive, the Italian honorary consul said on Sunday.

The double murder of the two women, aged 28 and 33, has shocked the people of the archipelago, especially the grisly details given by a third woman who was left for dead but survived to tell how all three were beaten with stones.

"Apparently, one of the two girls was buried when she was still alive because the autopsy found traces of earth in her lungs," Honorary Consul Luigi Zirpoli told Reuters.

According to the survivor, Agnese Paci, 17, all three victims went with a local man, a former boyfriend of one of the women, to have dinner on Thursday night, but instead he drove them to a wood with an accomplice where he beat them with large stones.

Three men have been arrested in connection with the murders, Zirpoli said. "It looks increasingly like this was a crime of passion," he said. One of the victims lived in Cape Verde for part of the year and worked in tourism.

Cape Verde, a former Portuguese colony, is an archipelago about 500 km (300 miles) off the coast of Senegal and tourism is a vital part of the economy.

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