A huge explosion at a petrol station in an eastern district of Rome on Friday injured at least 45 people, including 12 police officers and six firefighters, Italian authorities said, APA reports citing Reuters.
The blast at the distributor of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the working class Prenestino neighbourhood was heard across the capital just after 8 am (0600 GMT).
The people hit by the explosion are being treated in local hospitals, Italian news agencies reported, with two in a critical condition due to extensive burns and needing ventilation support.
Website Roma Today published a photograph of a huge ball of flame and smoke rising high into the sky. Separate images released by the fire department showed the petrol station almost completely gutted.
"I pray for the people involved in the explosion of a gas station (...) in the heart of my Diocese. I continue to follow the developments of this tragic incident with concern," Pope Leo XIV wrote on X.
***12:41
An explosion rocked a gas station in Rome on Friday, leaving several people injured, including eight police officers and a firefighter, officials said, APA reports citing The New York Times.
The blast from the explosion was so loud that it was heard across the city.
A fuel tank at the gas station, in an eastern neighborhood of the city, exploded around 8:15 on Friday morning, the Rome police said. The station sold liquefied petroleum gas.
Firefighters and police officers had already been called to the gas station after an earlier incident involving a truck, and they were on the scene when the explosion took place, said Luca Cari, spokesman for the Italian fire service. The cause of the explosion was as yet unknown, Mr. Cari said, and he had no further information about the incident involving the truck.
“We only know that there was an explosion,” Mr. Cari said. After the blast, firefighters were working to douse a blaze that had started behind the station in a parking lot for cars confiscated by the judicial authorities, he added.
