BBC: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Three police officers have been killed and at least 15 other people injured in an apparently deliberate gas explosion at a farmhouse in northern Italy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The blast was triggered as police and firefighters went into the house near Verona to carry out an eviction order for two brothers and a sister in their late 50s and mid-60s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The three victims who died were members of the Carabinieri military police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A man and a woman were arrested at the scene and another man who fled after the explosion was located soon after. All three have been taken to hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The blast could be heard some 5km (3 miles) away and images from the scene showed the building reduced to a pile of rubble.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The head of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, said the farmhouse was subject to an eviction order due to debts accrued by the three owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This is a time for grieving,” said Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi, who added that attempts had been made to evict the three siblings in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was clear we were dealing with people who would resist in some way,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mediators had been sent to speak to the siblings who had barricaded themselves into the house. When the Carabinieri arrived shortly after 03:00 (01:00 GMT), officials believe one of the siblings triggered the blast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Upon entering the house, we were confronted with an act of absolute madness,” provincial police commander Claudio Papagno told the Ansa news agency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“A gas cylinder had been ignited, and the explosion directly hit our officers,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Petrol bombs were also found at the property, the interior minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those injured by the blast included 11 other members of the Carabinieri and well as three members of Italy’s state police and a firefighter, Ansa reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Verona prosecutor, Raffaele Tito, the farmhouse was in a derelict state and had no electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The prosecutor believed the blast had taken place on a floor above the entrance and told reporters it was a “premeditated and voluntary homicide”. Shortly before the explosion, he said officers had “heard a whistle, probably the gas cylinders being opened”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“We all knew the situation was dire,” neighbours told Italian media, adding that the three had previously threatened to “blow themselves up” rather than leave the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Piantedosi said the explosion had left a “terrible, very painful and dramatic toll”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Defence Minister Guido Crosetto joined other political leaders in paying tribute to the three men who had lost their lives in the service of their country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BBC: Three police officers have been killed and at least 15 other people injured in an apparently deliberate gas explosion at a farmhouse in northern Italy. The blast was triggered as police and firefighters went into the house near Verona to carry out an eviction order for two brothers and a sister in their late 50s and mid-60s. The three victims who died were members of the Carabinieri military police. A man and a woman were arrested at the scene and another man who fled after the explosion was located soon after. All three have been taken to hospital. The… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50885,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-50884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-in-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50884","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=50884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50886,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50884\/revisions\/50886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/50885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=50884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=50884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gyalchisarshog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=50884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}