Building collapses, soldiers and policemen injured in the Verona area. Three brothers arrested. Meloni: «A thought for those who serve Italy». Piantedosi: «A terrible, very painful, dramatic toll»
Three carabinieri died and 16 soldiers and police officers were injured in an explosion that occurred in a farmhouse in Castel D’Azzano, in the province of Verona. The victims are the Lieutenant Special Charge Marco Piffari, the Carabiniere Scelto Davide Bernardello and the Brigadier Chief Special Qualification Valerio Daprà.
According to initial information, the police forces had intervened for vacate the houseinside which there were three people when the explosion occurred. The entire two-storey farmhouse collapsed overwhelming the soldiers and agents. Numerous vehicles of the emergency and medical emergency service are operating. The house was full of gas
e the explosion was triggered when the front door was openedas we learn from sources close to the investigators. In the farmhouse there were at least 5-6 cylindersand it appears that the explosion occurred on the first floor.
PREVIOUS CLEARANCE ATTEMPTS
Two people – the brothers Dino and Maria Luisa Ramponi (the 17th person injured) – they were stopped by the men of the Carabinieri and rescued. The third brother, Franco, initially managed to escape, but was stopped in the morning. An incredible tragedy, commented the chief prosecutor of Verona, Raffaele Titowho arrived on site: «We had to carry out a search warrant, they were also looking for Molotov cocktails. The Carabinieri and Police tried to act in maximum safety and with all the necessary equipment. But the outcome was unexpected and very painful.” The prosecutor also clarified that all three were arrested for premeditated murder and that the massacre is being evaluated: “We found ourselves faced with an apocalyptic scene”. It is not the first time that, to avoid an eviction, the occupants of the farmhouse saturate the rooms with gas. Already in October 2024, exactly one year ago, they had saturated the farmhouse with gas. On that occasion the eviction was postponed, the rooms were aired out and everything was resolved without incident. A year ago, one of the three brothers had also doused himself in petrol and threatened to set himself on fire, and another had climbed onto the roof of the Court and threatened to throw himself.
The interrogations of the three will begin in the afternoon.
THE JUDICIAL PROCESS
The three brothers claimed that they had been “deceived” and that the Court ruling evicting them from the farmhouse was wrong. In particular, the story arises from a mortgage that they would have signed in 2014, with the mortgage of the fields and house. However, the three had always maintained that they had never signed the loan documents, and that indeed the signatures had been forged. However, the judicial process had reached the decision to execute the expropriation.
MELONS: «DEEP PAIN»
«We are still shocked and shocked by what happened. In this moment of profound pain, I express my deepest condolences and my total closeness to the Carabinieri, to the families of the three fallen soldiers and to all their injured colleagues”, the comment of Elena Guadagninimayor of Castel d’Azzano. «Three brothers lived in the farmhouse. It seems they had had some for some time stored cylinders and they saturated the attic to make it explode. It all happened tonight at around 3.15am”, he added Rainews24 the deputy mayor Antonello Panuccio. «It is with deep sorrow that I learn of the tragic death of three Carabinieri and the wounding of thirteen other soldiers from the Army, Fire Brigade and Police. My condolences and those of the Government go to the families of the victims. A thought for those who serve Italy”, wrote the Prime Minister on X Giorgia Meloni.
REACTIONS TO THE TRAGEDY
“When they entered the apartment, the witnesses said they smelled gas and a few moments later there was an explosion,” said the Interior Minister. Matteo Piantedosi speaking to One Morning of the tragedy, which «marks the difficulty, complexity and potential danger of this work. It is possible – continues the owner of the Interior Ministry – that someone inside activated a cylinder, creating the conditions for the explosion. A terrible, very painful, dramatic toll.” The Carabinieri “sacrificed their lives doing their duty”, added the Defense Minister Guido Crosetto. «We are faced with a real tragedy», which is taking shape «with a war bulletin», with three carabinieri «who lose their lives in this way», are the words of the president of the Veneto Region Luca Zaiainterviewed by Rtl 102.5. «A prayer for the three soldiers killed in the explosion, a strong hug to their families and to the Carabinieri», writes the deputy prime minister and leader of the League on social media, Matteo Salvini.
