More than 45 people, including nine police officers and a firefighter, were injured on Friday in a massive explosion at a petrol station in an eastern district of Rome, Italian officials said.
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.
Besides the first responders, 12 civilians were injured, including the manager of the station, the head of Rome’s police, Roberto Massucci, who was quoted by Italian news agencies as saying. He added that no one was in a life-threatening condition.
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According to health officials, five people with minor burns and injuries from shattered glass were hospitalised.
The large blast at the distributor of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the Prenestino neighbourhood was heard across the Italian capital just after 8am.
Pope Leo XIV wrote on X, saying, “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.”
Local media reported firefighters and ambulance workers were caught up in the blast, as they had been called to the scene earlier, after a truck hit a pipeline at the fuel distributor.
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The fire department in a statement said, “We are working on a tank explosion … the fire is still ongoing,” adding that one of its officers had been hospitalised.
A sports centre, which hosts a youth summer camp and sits opposite the station, was evacuated before the blast, a representative of the centre said in a Facebook video.
The fire spread to a nearby depot, and the shockwave from the explosion damaged nearby buildings.
According to the office of Italy’s PM Giorgia Meloni, she was following the situation.
