3 dead, 6 missing in explosion in Sicily caused by gas leak

MILAN — Firefighters successful Sicily were digging done the rubble of a collapsed flat gathering Sunday successful the hunt for six missing radical aft an detonation seemingly caused by a state leak killed astatine slightest three, authorities said.

The gathering was occupied by 9 members of an extended family, and 2 visiting relatives — a heavy large pistillate and her hubby — were besides connected the premises erstwhile the detonation occurred precocious Saturday successful the municipality of Ravenusa, firefighters said.

Two women were rescued overnight. One of them, 80-year-old Rosa Carmina, told La Repubblica regular that the lights went retired abruptly “and the ceiling and floors collapsed.” Her sister-in-law, who lived connected the level supra her, besides survived and was rescued from beneath a heap of rubble.

The detonation besides collapsed 3 different buildings that look to person been unoccupied, and shattered windows successful 3 more.

“It was surely a state leak that created created a bubble of methane,” the caput of Sicily’s civilian extortion agency, Salvatore Cocina, told ANSA. He said that a preliminary uncovering indicates that the functioning of an elevator whitethorn person acceptable disconnected the explosion, which was past fed by a state abstraction heater.