Three Carabinieri Killed in Farmhouse Explosion During Eviction

Verona: Three Carabinieri police officers were killed on Tuesday by an explosion during the eviction of a farmhouse in the province of Verona, deaths apparently deliberately caused by a trap laid by the people being evicted. Another 15 public officials have been taken to hospital with injuries sustained in the blast at Castel D’Azzano – 11 Carabinieri, three State police officers and a firefighter, sources said.

According to Ansa News Agency, two of the people who were being evicted, a brother and sister in their 60s, were detained at the scene, while a third member of the same family, 65-year-old Franco Ramponi, was apprehended in the countryside near the property while on the run. 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.

The eviction had been planned for days. Previous attempts to evict the family, reportedly three siblings with financial problems, had been thwarted by threats from the f
amily to blow themselves up, sources said.