A raid on a farmhouse in northern Italy whose occupants had been resisting eviction turned deadly on Tuesday when the building exploded, killing three military police officers, Italian officials said. At least 13 other officers were injured, along with two of the people living in the house.
The blast occurred shortly after officers from multiple agencies and firefighters arrived at the dilapidated farmhouse in Castel d’Azzano in the province of Verona, acting on a search warrant, according to Raffaele Tito, the chief prosecutor of Verona.
The occupants, three siblings in their 50s and 60s, had been served an eviction order and had threatened to blow up the home, Mr. Tito told reporters on Tuesday morning. The warrant had been issued to search for flammable materials, he said.
The farmhouse had been put up for sale on a judicial auction, a sale of property to pay off debts. Mr. Tito said that a judge had ordered the family of farmers who lived there to vacate the property but that they repeatedly refused.
Antonello Panuccio, the deputy mayor of Castel d’Azzano, said in a telephone interview that various options for lodgings had been offered to the family members, “but they had refused them.”
Officials were investigating the details of the explosion. Mr. Tito said that several gas cylinders had been in different rooms but that it was unclear whether they were open when the explosion occurred.
The two-story building collapsed, trapping officers inside, according to a spokesman for the Carabinieri, Italy’s military police.
Mr. Panuccio said that two attempts to evict family members last year had been thwarted after they threatened to blow up the home.
A brother and sister were arrested at the home on Tuesday, and the woman was hospitalized for her injuries, officials said. A third sibling was arrested in a nearby field shortly after, according to Italian officials.
“It’s an incredible tragedy, absurd behavior,” Mr. Tito said from the site of the explosion, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. “The Carabinieri and police tried to act with maximum safety and with all the necessary equipment. But the outcome was unexpected and very painful.”
Elisabetta Povoledo is a Times reporter based in Rome, covering Italy, the Vatican and the culture of the region. She has been a journalist for 35 years.
Daniel Victor is a senior editor at The Times on the Live team, which covers breaking and developing news.
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