Sicily building blast death toll rises to 7

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December 14, 2021

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Sicily building blast death toll rises to 7

Source: AFP | 00:00 UTC+8 December 14, 2021 |

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Rescuers yesterday found four more bodies in the rubble of collapsed buildings in Sicily after a massive explosion probably caused by a gas leak, raising the official death toll to seven, officials said.

“The search continues unabated” for two more people missing after four residential buildings toppled to the ground late on Saturday in the southern town of Ravanusa, the Italian island’s civil protection unit said on Facebook.

The latest victims were found at dawn.

A photograph posted on the region’s firefighting service Twitter account showed firefighters standing on the rubble, as “a fresh day of searching painfully begins.”

Images showed a mass of concrete rubble, wooden beams and mangled steel in a large empty space, with neighboring buildings charred and damaged.

The victims included nurse Selene Pascariello, 30, who was nine months pregnant, and who had been due to give birth next week, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

Pascariello’s body was found alongside that of her husband Giuseppe Carmina, and his parents. The couple had been visiting the soon-to-be grandparents on the third floor of their building.

The family had known well one of the first victims to be found, retired high-school teacher Pietro Carmina, who had recently recovered from a life-threatening case of coronavirus, it said.

Two women were recovered alive from the debris early on Sunday after being found by sniffer dogs, but rescuers have not heard further signs of life.

The blast leveled four structures, including a four-story apartment building, in the central residential district of the town of nearly 11,000 inhabitants, according to the civil protection unit.

An investigation has been opened into the cause of the explosion, which authorities said was most probably a gas leak.

Natural gas distributor Italgas said it had received no reports of gas leaks in the week leading up to the incident.

No construction work was under way in the section of pipeline affected in the blast and the town’s distribution network was fully inspected in both 2020 and 2021, it said.

Local resident Calogero Bonanno said “neighbors had told me there was a smell of gas.”

“I heard a tremendous roar, as if a bomb had gone off or a plane had crashed into the house,” he was cited as saying by Italian media.

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Sicily building blast death toll rises to 7

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