Explosion in Rome on Via dei Gordiani: About Twenty Injured. “We Thought It Was a Bomb”

"The timely intervention of our Carabinieri was very important, as they extracted a person alive from a burning car: he was loaded into a Carabinieri service car and taken to the nearest hospital, the Casilino Polyclinic, where he is hospitalized in serious conditions," said Carabinieri Major Andrea Quattrocchi, commander of the Casilino company, on the spot where the explosion occurred in Rome.

"At the first hints of smoke around 7.30 we evacuated the children, there were 8 of them. The parents arrived, the kids are all fine. If it had happened an hour later it would have been a massacre: there would have been 60 children from the summer camp, us in charge, and 120 booked in the swimming pool. The sports center is damaged, it looks like a battlefield". This was said by the president of the Villa De Sanctis sports club, Fabio Balzani, speaking about the explosion in Rome, in via Gordiani

"I pray for the people involved in the explosion of a gas station, which occurred this morning in the Prenestino Labicano neighborhood in the heart of my Diocese. I continue to follow with apprehension the developments of this tragic accident". This is the message of Pope Prevost via X after the explosion of a gas station in the capital.

The reasons for the double explosion that shook Rome are still unclear. According to initial reports, it all started with a tanker truck that had just finished unloading fuel at the gas station on Via dei Gordiani. The vehicle, during a maneuver, hit a pipe. The accident gave rise to the first strong explosion around eight o'clock. Rescuers immediately arrived on site and ten minutes later were hit by the second explosion.

The mayor of Rome Roberto Gualtieri arrived on site, who went to see the site of the double explosion in person. With him was also the commander of the local police Mario De Sclavis. At the moment, about thirty families have been evacuated, but the number is expected to grow. In the areas around the gas station there is a lot of debris that fell from the sky. The largest is a slab about four meters long that landed a few meters from the houses on Via dei Gordiani.

During the first rescue operations, following the explosion in via dei Gordiani, the Carabinieri who intervened promptly evacuated the affected area and provided first aid to some of the injured, who were accompanied to the hospital also with the service radios, including one of the most serious, taken to the Vannini hospital. A Carabiniere from the Mobile Radio Unit, among the first to respond, was also slightly injured.

"I was running, as the crow flies I was a hundred meters from the gas pump" says Massimo Bartoletti, one of the eyewitnesses. "I saw the first explosion with the classic fireball. Shortly after came the second one which was hellish. A fiery mushroom formed in the sky. It made the whole area shake. It looked like hell, everything was flying in the sky". Many residents are terrified by the fire in the streets. "We were on the seventh floor, the building started to sway. As if there was an earthquake"

The Rome Local Police have cordoned off the area where the explosion of a LPG petrol station occurred this morning in via dei Gordiani 34. The patrols of the V Prenestino Group of the Rome Capital Local Police are operating on site. The officers immediately activated safety measures, also proceeding with the evacuation of the nearby Villa De Sanctis summer centre, where 15 children were present. The patrols are engaged in traffic services in the area, with closures in place on via dei Gordiani, from via Casilina to via Checco Durante. A section of via Casilina near the area affected by the explosion has also been closed. Additional units of the White Helmets have arrived to provide assistance to the operations in progress and to facilitate traffic in the area affected by the damage. The damage assessment activity is underway, which appears to have affected some buildings and vehicles in the area.

The Rome Public Prosecutor's Office is awaiting the first reports from the firefighters and law enforcement officers who intervened in the explosion that occurred on Via dei Gordiani in Rome. In light of the file, the prosecutors, coordinated by the deputy prosecutor Giovanni Conzo, will open an investigation file. The causes of the strong explosion are being ascertained.

"We were awakened by a loud bang, it looked like a bomb, an attack". This is how Paola, a resident of an apartment building on Via dei Gordiani, describes the moments of fear she felt this morning immediately after the explosion in Rome. "We didn't understand what it was, all the windows shook. It could have been a bomb, an earthquake, we didn't understand.

Then from the smoke we understood that it was an explosion" says Francesco, a tenant of a building next door.

The President of the Council Giorgia Meloni, according to sources at Palazzo Chigi, is following the consequences of the explosion of a petrol station, which occurred in Rome in the Prenestino district and was also felt in other areas of the city. Meloni has spoken to the mayor of Rome, Roberto Gualtieri, and is in close contact with the undersecretary Alfredo Mantovano, who is constantly informed by the competent authorities, with particular attention to the health of those involved

The bus stop has been closed metro C Teano in Rome after the strong explosion that occurred at a distributor in via dei Gordiani in the Prenestina area. The closure, Atac reports on its website, was triggered by order of the police.

Massive explosion with fire in a fuel distributor in via dei Gordiani 32, on the outskirts of Rome. An LPG system exploded. The blast was heard throughout the capital. Firefighters, 118 paramedics, the Carabinieri and the police were on site.