View Image

Three police officers have been killed and another 13 injured in an explosion at a farmhouse in a rural Italian town.

Officers were carrying out an eviction at a property in the town of Castel d’Azzano, near the north-eastern city of Verona, when the blast occurred.

A brother and a sister in their 60s were detained while a third sibling escaped, police said.

"While our carabinieri were carrying out a judicial order, they were hit by an intentional explosion of a gas tank," Verona’s carabinieri commander Colonel Claudio Pagano told Sky TG24 . He called it "an absolutely crazy gesture".

The two-storey farmhouse had been filled with gas, and the explosion was set off when authorities opened the door, regional governor Luca Zaia told Sky TG24 .

It was the second time aut

See Full Page