4 dead in Sicily gas explosion

ITALY: Three people were killed and six are still missing after a gas explosion late on Saturday caused several residential buildings in the Sicilian town of Ravanusa to collapse, Italian authorities said on Sunday.

Two people were rescued alive under the rubble of the collapsed buildings, the Sicilian arm of the body that deals with disasters and catastrophes on its Tweeter account on Sunday.

“The local representative for the Civil Protection reports that four victims have been ascertained,” Sicily’s Civil protection said in a tweet.

Rescuers thought a total of 11 people had been hit by the explosion, the captain of the local fire fighters, Giuseppe Merendino, said earlier on Sunday.

A priest who was celebrating mass nearby on Saturday evening said the houses caught fire after a natural gas pipe exploded in the town of 11,000 people, which is near Agrigento, a city in the southwest of the island famous for its Greek temples.

The methane explosion resulted in the collapse of several buildings in the town, Italy’s civil protection officers said.

– GULF NEWS