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Three members of law enforcement perished and more than a dozen additional individuals got wounded in what appears to be premeditated detonation from gas at a country home in the northern part of Italy.

Event Timeline

The explosion was triggered as police and firefighters approached the residence close to the city of Verona to carry out an eviction order for three siblings aged in their 50s and 60s.

Each of the three victims who died were members of the Carabinieri military police.

Investigation Developments

Two individuals were arrested at the location and one more individual who fled after the incident was apprehended not long after. Each of them have been admitted to hospital.

The detonation could be heard some 5km (3 miles) away and images from the area displayed the property left as a mass of wreckage.

“This moment calls for sorrow,” stated the Minister of the Interior the Interior Minister, who mentioned that efforts had been made to remove the three siblings in the earlier times.

Financial Context

The president of the Veneto area, Luca Zaia, said the property was under an removal notice due to unpaid amounts accrued by the three owners.

Conflict resolution experts had been dispatched to engage the siblings who had locked themselves into the house. When the police came shortly after 03:00 (01:00 GMT), investigators suspect one of the siblings triggered the explosion.

“When we entered the property, we faced an utterly insane act,” provincial police commander Commander Papagno informed reporters.

A propane tank had been ignited, and the explosion immediately struck our members,” he said.

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

Casualties and Damage

Injured individuals by the explosion consisted of 11 other members of the Carabinieri as well as three members of Italy's state police and a fire services member.

As stated by the Verona prosecutor, the building was in a derelict state and had was without power.

He thought the blast had happened on a level above the entrance and told journalists it was a “premeditated and voluntary homicide”. Moments before the incident, he revealed members had “heard a whistle, probably the gas cylinders being activated”.

Neighbor Statements

“Everyone was aware the circumstances were severe,” neighbors told reporters, adding that the trio had previously threatened to “detonate the property” rather than leave the house.

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

Minister of Defence Guido Crosetto united with other elected representatives in commemorating the three officers who had been killed in the line of duty.