Italian authorities launched a major murder investigation Tuesday after three members of the country’s national gendarmerie were killed and at least 13 injured in an explosion at a rundown farmhouse triggered by occupants resisting eviction. File photo by Tino Romano/EPA-EFE
Three Italian police officers were killed and at least 13 injured in a gas blast early Tuesday as they attempted to carry out an eviction at a farmhouse near Verona in the north of the country.
The residents, two men and a woman, all related, were arrested in connection with the incident in Castel d’Azzano, which provincial police commander Claudio Papagno said appeared to be deliberate after gas inside the property was ignited as the officers broke down the door.
“Upon entering the house, we were confronted with an act of absolute madness. A gas cylinder had been ignited, and the explosion directly hit our officers,” said Papagno.
The officers killed were members of the Carabinieri military police, but state police and a firefighter were among those injured.
He said that an investigation has been launched, but that as far as he understood, the suspects had barricaded themselves inside the building, which had been abandoned for several months previously.
Gasoline bombs had also been found at the scene, according to the interior minister.
The three, who were inside when the explosion occurred, were being treated in the hospital.
Earlier efforts to evict the suspects, all siblings in their 50s and 60s, had been paused after threats to blow themselves up, Italy’s ANSA news agency said.
Verona chief prosecutor Rafaele Tito said the suspects faced first-degree murder charges and, potentially, “mass killing.”
The incident came two weeks after an official appointed by the court to sell the property was warned off by the family, which was suffering from financial problems, and one of the siblings had threatened to blow himself up.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she was shocked and deeply saddened by the incident and paid tribute to the Carabinieri Corps, Italy’s national police, which is a paramilitary force.
“I am following the developments of this dramatic event with sorrow, one which reminds us once again of the value and daily sacrifice of those who serve the state and its citizens,” said Meloni.
