🔗 Share this article

Three members of law enforcement perished and more than a dozen people were hurt in an apparently premeditated blast caused by gas at a rural property in the northern part of Italy.

Sequence of Events

The explosion was triggered as law enforcement and fire personnel went into the house in the vicinity of Verona to enforce an removal notice for a brother and sister trio aged in their 50s and 60s.

All three victims who died belonged to the Italian military police.

Investigation Developments

Two individuals were arrested at the scene and a third person who ran away after the explosion was apprehended not long after. Each of them have been transported to medical facility.

The detonation could be audible some 5km (3 miles) away and photographs from the area revealed the structure left as a mass of wreckage.

“We are in a period of mourning,” said the Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who noted that previous tries had been made to displace the brother and sister trio in the past.

Background and Motive

The president of the Veneto area, President Zaia, said the farmhouse was facing an court order due to debts accrued by the three owners.

Conflict resolution experts had been dispatched to talk with the brothers and sister who had locked themselves into the property. When the officers came shortly after 03:00 (01:00 GMT), investigators suspect one of the residents triggered the detonation.

“When we entered the property, we faced an utterly insane act,” provincial police commander Commander Papagno told news outlets.

A propane tank had been set off, and the detonation immediately struck our officers,” he said.

Incendiary devices were also found at the residence, the minister said.

Injuries and Destruction

Injured individuals by the explosion comprised 11 other members of the police force as well as a trio of personnel of Italy's state police and a emergency responder.

According to the Verona prosecutor, the property was in a derelict state and had no electricity.

He thought the explosion had taken place on a story above the access point and told journalists it was a “intentional and planned killing”. Just prior to the explosion, he said personnel had “detected a whistling noise, likely the gas canisters being opened”.

Community Reaction

“We all knew the situation was dire,” local residents told Italian media, mentioning that the trio had in the past stated to “detonate the property” rather than be evicted.

“The blast resulted in a ‘horrific, deeply distressing and tragic cost’.”

Minister of Defence the Defence Minister stood alongside other political leaders in honoring the trio of personnel who had lost their lives in the line of duty.