Three police officers killed in gas explosion while evicting squatters who ‘deliberately triggered blast’

Three police officers have been killed in an explosion in Italy while evicting people 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 been caused by gas canisters, caused the farmhouse to completely collapse.

A brother and a sister in their 60s 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 five kilometres (3.1 miles) away, reports from Italian media said.

Defence Minister Guido Crosetto paid tribute to the three officers, who have been named as Marco Piffari, Davide Bernardello and Valerio Daprà.

“I wish to pay tribute to the memory of Lieutenant Special Charge Marco Piffari , Carabiniere Select Davide Bernardello and Brigadier Chief Special Qualification Valerio Daprà , 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, Col. Claudio Pagano, told Sky TG24. He called it “an absolutely crazy gesture.”

The two-story 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, Zaia said.

Antonello Panuccio, deputy mayor of Castel d'Azzano, told regional media stated 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 5-kilometer 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.

Italy’s Carabinieri are a national militarised police force key to law enforcement in the country.