🔗 Share this article

Three police officers lost their lives and at least 15 others were hurt in what appears to be deliberate detonation from gas at a country home in the northern part of Italy.

Sequence of Events

The detonation took place as police and firefighters entered the residence in the vicinity of the Verona region to enforce an eviction order for a brother and sister trio in their late 50s and mid-60s.

Each of the three officers killed belonged to the Carabinieri force.

Investigation Developments

One male and one female got detained at the site and one more individual who escaped following the explosion was apprehended not long after. All three have been transported to medical facility.

The explosion could be heard some 5km (3 miles) away and footage from the area displayed the structure reduced to a mass of wreckage.

“This is a time for grieving,” stated the Interior Minister the Interior Minister, who added that attempts had been made to remove the three family members in the earlier times.

Background and Motive

The leader of the Veneto area, Luca Zaia, explained the property was under an eviction order due to financial obligations incurred by the property owners.

Mediators had been sent to talk with the siblings who had secured themselves into the property. When the police reached the location shortly after 03:00 (01:00 GMT), authorities suspect one of the residents triggered the explosion.

“When we entered the property, we faced an utterly insane act,” local police chief Commander Papagno told the media.

A gas canister had been activated, and the blast directly hit our officers,” he said.

Incendiary devices were also located at the site, the interior minister stated.

Injuries and Destruction

Those injured by the incident included 11 other members of the Carabinieri as well as three officers of national police and a emergency responder.

According to the prosecuting attorney, the property was in a poor condition and had was without power.

The prosecutor thought the explosion had happened on a level above the doorway and stated to the press it was a “deliberate and pre-planned murder”. Shortly before the incident, he mentioned members had “detected a whistling noise, probably the gas cylinders being activated”.

Neighbor Statements

“All of us understood the scenario was critical,” local residents told reporters, noting that the trio had in the past stated to “cause an explosion” rather than be evicted.

“The explosion had left a ‘terrible, very painful and dramatic toll’.”

Defence Minister the Defence Minister united with other elected representatives in honoring the three men who had lost their lives in the service of their country.