Three police officers have been killed in an explosion in Italy while evicting people who were living in an abandoned farmhouse.
Italian militarised police were carrying out an eviction in the town of Castel d’Azzano near Verona when an explosive device was detonated deliberately by a brother and sister living in the property, authorities said. The blast, which is thought to have involved gas canisters, caused the farmhouse to collapse completely.
A brother and a sister in their sixties have been detained following the explosion, with a third sibling on the run, according to police.
The noise from the blast could be heard as far as 5km (3.1 miles) away, reports in Italian media said.
Defence minister Guido Crosetto paid tribute to the three officers, who have been named as Marco Piffari, Davide Bernardello and Valerio Dapra.
“I wish to pay tribute to the memory of Lieutenant Special Charge Marco Piffari , Carabiniere Select Davide Bernardello and Brigadier Chief Special Qualification Valerio Dapra, who sacrificed their lives carrying out their duty to the very end in the service of the country,” he said in a statement.
“In this moment of profound sadness, on my own behalf, as minister of defence, as a father and as a citizen, and on behalf of every woman and man of defence, I express my most sincere and heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims, to their loved ones and to the entire Carabinieri force.”
Authorities said it was their second attempt to evict the siblings from the “abandoned structure” after they took up residence in it last year.
“While our Carabinieri were carrying out a judicial order, they were hit by an intentional explosion of a gas tank,” Verona’s Carabinieri commander, Colonel Claudio Pagano, told Sky TG24. He called it “an absolutely crazy gesture”.
The two-storey farmhouse had been filled with gas, and the explosion was set off when authorities opened the door, regional governor Luca Zaia told Sky TG24. Another eviction attempt was thwarted last year when the siblings threatened to blow the house up, said Mr Zaia.
Antonello Panuccio, the deputy mayor of Castel d’Azzano, told regional media that the siblings “didn’t want to leave the house” and that the attic was “saturated with gas”.
“The operation was planned because the special forces were arriving from outside the province, and therefore it was already planned with ambulances, because it was known there could be injuries, but no one imagined they had planned an explosion like this, which was heard within a 5km radius,” he added.
“With deep sorrow I have learnt of the tragic passing of three Carabinieri. My condolences, and those of the government, go to the families of the victims,” Italy’s prime minister Giorgia Meloni wrote on X (Twitter).
Italy’s Carabinieri are a national militarised police force, and are a key component of law enforcement in the country.
