Milan building blast kills three

Tuesday, September 19, 2006 - 06:56 AM

An explosion ripped through a four-storey building in Milan, killing two men and a boy, injuring several dozen people and littering the street with furniture and glass.

Authorities said the blast sparked a fire, caused the building on the eastern edge of Italy’s financial capital to collapse and shook other buildings as far as 1,300 feet away. Fire brigade chiefs said about 50 people were injured.

The fire brigade said those killed included a young Albanian man who had been passing by, an older Italian man and a seven-year-old boy who lived in the building. It did not immediately release their names or the ages of the men.

The boy’s body was found more than three hours after the blast as his mother looked on in tears.

Claudia Rosi Toletti, 58, a high-school German language teacher who lives on the same street, at first feared a terrorist attack had taken place.

“With this story about the pope, the first thing I thought about was a bomb,” she said, referring to widespread anger from Muslims around the world in response to recent remarks by Pope Benedict XVI about Islam.

Milan’s Fire Department said the blaze was put out about an hour after the explosion and rescue officials were combing through the ruins searching for people who might be trapped.

Fire officials said witnesses said they had smelled gas shortly before the explosion, at about 8pm local time (7pm Irish time).

Alessandra Rossi, a 40-year-old travel agent who lives nearby, said: “The front of the building had collapsed and you could see inside people’s apartments.”