Three police officers killed in Italy after explosion at house during eviction

An explosion at a farmhouse near Verona killed three police officers and injured at least 13 others, officials said on Tuesday.

Police were attempting to conduct an eviction when the house blew up overnight in Castel d’Azzano, in northern Italy, in what appeared to be an intentional act of violence.

Police have arrested two men and one woman, all siblings in their 60s, who were the targets of the eviction.

The house was filled with gas and the explosion was triggered by the front door opening when the law enforcement officers broke in, investigative sources said.

“Upon entering the house, we were confronted with an act of absolute madness,” the provincial police commander Claudio Papagno told the ANSA news agency. “A gas cylinder had been ignited, and the explosion directly hit our officers.”

An investigation was under way, the officer said, adding that it appeared to be “an intentional act”.

“It was a building that had been abandoned for several months, and the occupants had essentially barricaded themselves inside,” he said.

Previous attempts to evict the family, with financial problems, had been thwarted by threats from the siblings to blow themselves up, according to ANSA.

Papagno confirmed the arrest of two people. A short while later, the president of the Veneto region, Luca Zaia, posted on social media that the third occupant of the house had also been detained.

Twelve law enforcement officers and a civilian woman were injured, firefighters said on X.

Verona’s chief prosecutor, Raffaele Tito, said the three suspects faced charges of “premeditated murder”, with authorities also considering the charge of mass killing. “I had authorised a search for molotov cocktails after Carabinieri photos showed bottles on the roof,” Tito said.

At the end of September, they had allegedly threatened “the court-appointed custodian tasked with selling the property”, and “one of them had said he would blow himself up”, Tito said. “That is why the house search had been authorised.”

The Italian president, Sergio Mattarella, and the prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, paid tribute and expressed “dismay and deep sorrow”.

“In these dramatic circumstances, I express my solidarity with the Carabinieri Corps and feelings of shared condolences to the family members, together with the wish for a speedy recovery to the injured officials,” Mattarella said.

Meloni said: “I am following the developments of this dramatic event with sorrow, one which reminds us once again of the value and daily sacrifice of those who serve the State and its citizens.”

AFP and ANSA contributed to this report