A huge explosion caused by a gas leak ripped through an apartment block today, killing four people, three of them firemen, and injuring more than 30 people, police said.
Another fireman was in a coma and was considered by doctors to be clinically dead, a spokesman for the fire brigades said. Another victim was a woman resident.
The firemen were responding to a call about the leak in the neighbourhood in Rome's northeast outskirts.
An underground gas leak caused the explosion, the regional governor of Rome, Emilio del Mese, told reporters.
A lot of firemen were there when it exploded. The gas exploded in a basement soon after 9 a.m. (8 a.m. Irish time), ripping out the first two floors of one building, hurling cars into the air and shattering windows in adjacent apartment blocks.
Six firemen called to the scene were in the building when the explosion occurred.