An explosion at a farmhouse in northern Italy during a police raid killed three Carabinieri officers and injured 12 others, Italy’s fire service said on X on Tuesday.
The explosion occurred in Castel d’Azzano, near the city of Verona, overnight and caused the farmhouse to collapse, firefighters said. A woman was also injured and seven firefighters were taken to hospital for checks, they added.
Italian media reported that the officers were trying to carry out an eviction order and that the initial indications were that gas canisters had exploded in the building.
The noise from the blast could be heard as far as five kilometres (3.1 miles) away.
Corriere della Sera reported that three siblings lived in the building and had been resisting attempts to evict them for several years.
“With deep sorrow I have learnt of the tragic passing of three Carabinieri. My condolences, and those of the government, go to the families of the victims,” Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on X.
The blast occurred as officers from multiple agencies and firefighters were entering the home in Castel d’Azzano, in the northern province of Verona, to enforce an evacuation order, Guido Crosetto, the minister, said in a statement. The two-story building collapsed, trapping officers inside, according to a spokesman for the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police.
Luca Zaia, the governor of Veneto, the region where Castel d’Azzano is, said the blast was heard three miles away. “It’s a genuine tragedy,” he told Sky News.
Three siblings who lived at the farmhouse had refused to leave the home despite an eviction order, Antonello Panuccio, the deputy mayor of Castel d’Azzano, told Rai News, Italy’s national broadcaster. When the police and firefighters shortly after 3 a.m., an explosion was triggered, he said.
A brother and sister, both in their 60s, were arrested at the home, and a third sibling was arrested in a nearby field shortly after, according to the Carabinieri. The two siblings at the home were injured in the explosion, the country’s interior minister, Matteo Piantedosi, told Rai News.
“It’s an incredible tragedy, absurd behavior,” Verona’s chief prosecutor, Raffaele Tito, said from the site of the explosion, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. “The Carabinieri and police tried to act with maximum safety and with all the necessary equipment. But the outcome was unexpected and very painful,” he said.