Explosion Costs Three Carabinieri While Executing Eviction Action in Northern Italy

Three police officers perished and no fewer than 15 additional individuals were hurt in an apparently premeditated gas explosion at a farmhouse in the northern part of Italy.

Event Timeline

The explosion was triggered as police and firefighters went into the house in the vicinity of the city of Verona to carry out an eviction order for a brother and sister trio aged in their 50s and 60s.

All three deceased individuals were members of the Italian military police.

Legal Proceedings

One male and one female got detained at the location and another man who fled after the explosion was apprehended not long after. The trio have been transported to the hospital.

The explosion could be heard some 5km (3 miles) away and footage from the location displayed the property turned into a mass of wreckage.

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

Background and Motive

The head of the region of Veneto, Luca Zaia, said the residence was under an removal notice due to unpaid amounts incurred by the property owners.

Negotiators had been dispatched to engage the family members who had locked themselves into the home. When the police came shortly after 03:00 (01:00 GMT), officials suspect one of the siblings triggered the explosion.

“As we went inside, we encountered a completely deranged action,” local police chief the police commander informed news outlets.

“A gas cylinder had been ignited, and the explosion precisely impacted our personnel,” he explained.

Incendiary devices were also discovered at the site, the Interior Minister stated.

Injuries and Destruction

The wounded by the explosion comprised 11 other members of the Carabinieri as well as three members of Italy's state police and a firefighter.

Based on information from the Verona prosecutor, the building was in a poor condition and had no electricity.

The official thought the blast had occurred on a floor above the doorway and stated to the press it was a “deliberate and pre-planned murder”. Moments before the explosion, he mentioned officers had “heard a whistle, presumably the propane tanks being opened”.

Local Response

“All of us understood the scenario was critical,” nearby inhabitants told Italian media, mentioning that the family members had previously threatened to “blow themselves up” rather than be evicted.

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

Minister of Defence Guido Crosetto stood alongside other elected representatives in commemorating the three men who had died in the performance of their duties.