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Three police officers perished and more than a dozen others got wounded in what appears to be deliberate gas explosion at a country home in northern Italy.

Event Timeline

The detonation took place as officers and emergency crews approached the house close to Verona to execute an court-ordered eviction for two brothers and a sister aged in their 50s and 60s.

Each of the three victims who died belonged to the Carabinieri military police.

Legal Proceedings

A man and a woman got detained at the location and a third person who fled subsequent to the incident was apprehended not long after. All three have been transported to hospital.

The explosion could be audible as far as 3 miles distant and footage from the area revealed the property reduced to a pile of rubble.

“This is a time for grieving,” commented Interior Minister the Interior Minister, who noted that previous tries had been made to displace the three family members in the previous occasions.

Background and Motive

The leader of the Veneto area, Luca Zaia, said the farmhouse was subject to an removal notice due to unpaid amounts incurred by the siblings.

Negotiators had been sent to engage the brothers and sister who had locked themselves into the house. When the officers came soon after 03:00 (01:00 GMT), officials suspect one of the siblings caused the blast.

“Upon entering the house, we were confronted with an act of absolute madness,” local police chief the police commander stated to the media.

“A gas cylinder had been activated, and the blast precisely impacted our personnel,” he added.

Incendiary devices were also discovered at the property, the interior minister stated.

Injuries and Destruction

The wounded by the blast included 11 other members of the Carabinieri as well as three officers of Italy's state police and a emergency responder.

As stated by the local prosecutor, the property was in a poor condition and had was without power.

The prosecutor was convinced the blast had happened on a story above the access point and stated to the press it was a “premeditated and voluntary homicide”. Just prior to the incident, he mentioned members had “detected a whistling noise, likely the gas canisters being activated”.

Local Response

“All of us understood the scenario was critical,” nearby inhabitants informed reporters, mentioning that the family members had in the past stated to “cause an explosion” rather than leave the house.

“The incident exacted a ‘dreadful, extremely sad and dramatic price’.”

The Defense Minister Minister Crosetto stood alongside other government officials in commemorating the three officers who had lost their lives in the line of duty.