At least 27 people, including 10 police officers and a firefighter, were injured on Friday in a huge explosion at a petrol station in an eastern district of Rome, Italian authorities said, Reuters reports.
The blast at the distributor of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the working class Prenestino neighbourhood was heard across the capital just after 8 am (0600 GMT).
Website Roma Today published a photograph of a huge ball of flame and smoke rising high into the sky. Separate images released by the fire department showed the petrol station almost completely gutted.
Apart from the first responders, 16 civilians were injured, including the manager of the fuel distributor, a police spokeswoman said in a video, saying the toll was not final, and adding that the causes of the incident would be investigated.
An ambulance service spokesperson put the provisional number of injured at 28.
“I pray for the people involved in the explosion of a gas station in the heart of my Diocese. I continue to follow the developments of this tragic incident with concern,” Pope Leo XIV wrote on X.
Health authorities said eight people had been hospitalized, including two with serious burns and needing ventilation support, and a third person with burns was in serious but not critical condition.
