Hellish explosion in Rome leaves 40 injured including 11 police officers after 'truck hit pipeline at petrol station'

Daily Mail​

9 hours ago

A hellish explosion at a petrol station in Rome this morning has left at least 40 people injured including 11 police officers and a firefighter.
The blast was heard across the Italian capital shortly after 8am on Friday and sent up a huge cloud of dark smoke and fire that was visible from several areas of the city.
Shocking footage emerged following the incident, showing fires raging and a thick plume of smoke billowing from the site of the blast - a petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) station at 34 Via dei Gordiani in the Italian capital's eastern Prenestino district.
Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said that local police and firefighters rushed to the area after receiving a report of a gas leak. Two explosions followed after they arrived, he added.
'Local police immediately evacuated a sports centre nearby, while other officers evacuated buildings on the other side of the gas station, avoiding a much more serious tragedy,' Mr Gualtieri said.
Elisabetta Accardo, Rome's police spokeswoman, said that 24 residents were injured, including two who were in 'severe conditions' at Rome's Casilino hospital.
Eleven of the injured are from law enforcement bodies - police and carabinieri - and one is a firefighter but they are not in life-threatening conditions. No deaths have been reported.
Clips of the inferno shared to social media by horrified locals showed blackened tarmac littered with debris at the scene, while a webcam feed managed to capture the mushroom-cloud-like explosion rising over the city.
Emergency services were already at the scene before the blast. They had been called minutes earlier amid reports that a truck hit a petrol pump at the service station and caused a fire, Italian news agencies reported.
Elisabetta Accardo, a spokesperson for the Roman police, explained that fire triggered a small explosion which in turn set off a devastating chain reaction.
'There were a few chain explosions after the first one,' Accardo told Italian state broadcaster RAI. The second explosion was significantly larger and destroyed the entire facility.
Rome prosecutors have begun an investigation into the cause of the explosion, which could be related to a previous gas leak during the unloading phase of liquified petroleum gas at the station.
The nearby Villa de Sanctis sports centre was evacuated swiftly by police following the first explosion, with several children brought to safety.
Fabio Balzani, the President of Villa De Sanctis sports centre, told La Stampa that the building and facilities were damaged in the blast. He also said that kids attending a summer camp were evacuated before the explosion amid reports of a fire, averting disaster.
'At the first hint of smoke around 7:30 we evacuated the children, there were eight of them. The parents arrived, the kids are all fine,' he said.
'If it had happened an hour later, it would have been a massacre: there would have been 60 children from the summer camp, us in charge, and 120 booked in the swimming pool. The sports center is damaged, it looks like a battlefield.'
Police said they checked the surrounding area for people who were injured or trapped in nearby buildings.
Barbara Belardinelli said that she and her daughter were slightly injured when they heard the first explosion and left their home to investigate before the next explosion struck them.
'As soon as we heard the second explosion, we were also hit by a ball of fire. I thought that a car near us exploded, metal fragments were flying in the air,' she said.
'We felt the fire on the skin, the arm of my daughter is still red, it was horrible.'
Other residents said the explosion was so loud and violent it struck nearby buildings 'like an earthquake', breaking windows and ripping off shutters.
One eyewitness told Italian outlet La Repubblica that it looked as though a bomb had gone off.
'I was running, as the crow flies I was less than a hundred meters from the gas pump,' Massimo Bartoletti said.
'I saw the first explosion with the classic fireball. Shortly after came the second one which was hellish. A fiery mushroom cloud formed in the sky. It shook the whole area. It looked like hell, everything was flying in the sky.'
Parts of a fuel tanker were reportedly blown hundreds of metres away from the station, such was the force of the blast.
Several hospitals in Rome, including San Giovanni, Sandro Pertini and Sant'Eugenio, were all alerted about possible incoming trauma victims.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni commented on social media: 'I am closely following the consequences of the explosion that occurred this morning at a gas station in the Prenestino neighbourhood of Rome.
'I have spoken to the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, and I remain in constant contact with Undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano and the competent authorities to monitor the evolution of the situation.'
'I express my closeness to all those who are injured - including law enforcement officers, firefighters and health workers - and I extend my heartfelt thanks to those involved in the rescue and safety operations,' she wrote on X.
Pope Leo XIV said he was praying for those affected by the explosion, which happened 'in the heart of my Diocese.'
Other residents told Italian news agency ANSA about the ordeal.
'We were woken up by a bang, it sounded like a bomb, an attack,' a woman named Paola who lives in an apartment overlooking the station said.
'We didn't understand what it was, all the windows shook. It could have been a bomb, an earthquake, we didn't understand,' said Francesco, a tenant of a building next door.
'Then from the smoke we understood it was an explosion.'
'My mother has a cut on her leg, the windows are shattered,' another resident named Claudia said.
Several residents said they saw people lying in the street who had been injured by shards of glass or debris.
There is no suspicion of crime or foul play at present.