ROME, Italy –
A two-story building collapsed in the southern Italian province of Naples early Sunday, killing two young siblings and leaving their mother and an older woman trapped, firefighters said.
The firefighters said on their official Telegram channel that a gas explosion likely caused the collapse.
Rescuers in the town of Saviano recovered the bodies of a six-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl, saying their father and a two-year-old brother were found alive.
The father was hospitalized in Naples in serious condition, local media said.
Mayor Vincenzo Simonelli was at the scene and told reporters that the building appeared “crumpled up on itself,” adding it was “a very serious situation.”
Firefighers’ spokesman Luca Cari said that rescuers had to be “very careful and move slowly, to avoid new collapses” as they searched for the two women.
Media reports said a gas leak could have caused the explosion that rocked the second floor of the building, which crumbled down, covering the lower floor with rubble.
