More than 40 people have been injured after a major explosion at Rome Petrol Station, causing widespread damage.
Reports stated that emergency services were already on a pipe after hitting a pipe after a tanker truck already in the Pranstino neighborhood, causing gas leak on the local time (07:00 BST) and a small initial explosion.
According to the police, shortly after, each other, a big explosion caught fire, in which 45 people, including police officers, were injured.
The explosion footage depicts a giant fireball and thick black smoke filling the sky, which is heard across the city with the explosion, sharpening the nearby windows and buildings.
Rome Mayor Roberto Guultieri visited the petrol station and the charge remains of a nearby sports center.
He told local news outlets that the blasts had done “heavy damage” and injured residents and at least 21 emergency service workers along with police and firefighters.
Two people are in a state of life after suffering from big burning – including a man, who was reportedly drawn by a burning car.
Photo and footage from the scene showed widespread destruction after the explosion, in which vehicles and buildings were burnt.
Working on the spot continues.
The mayor said that immediately after the initial explosion, the people of nearby buildings, including a sports center, were vacated by the emergency teams, which could be a “very serious tragedy”.
An eyewitness, Massimo Bartolaytti told the local news outlet Roma Republicica: “I saw the first explosion with classic fireball. Shortly later the second came which was hellish.”
He said, “A fierce mushroom became in the sky. It shook the whole area. It looked like hell, everything seemed flying in the sky,” he said.
EPA / ShutterskBaljani Fabio, head of the nearby sports center destroyed in the explosion, said the first fire took place at around 07:30 local time (06:30 BST).
“If it had happened at 08:30 or later it would have been a massacre, a devastation,” he told AFP.
He said that about 60 children were scheduled to be on the site for a summer camp, with about 120 people booked that morning to use swimming pools.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is asked to closely monitor the situation.
In a post on X, he wrote: “I express my closeness to all those who are injured – including law enforcement officers, firefighters and health workers – and I expand my heartiest thanks to those involved in rescue and safety operations”.
