Firefighters work at the site of a collapsed building in Saviano, in the Campania region, Italy (Picture: REUTERS)
A mum and her two children aged four and six were killed after an apartment building collapsed in the town of Saviano in Italy.
Emergency workers were still searching the rubble for the grandmother of the children, who was thought to be trapped.
The children’s father and their two-year-old brother were pulled out of the rubble alive.
The father is in hospital in critical condition, while the boy is not in a life-threatening condition, ANSA reported.
It is likely that the explosion of a gas cylinder caused the building to collapse, the local fire service said on their official Telegram channel.
Firefighters spokesman Luca Cari said that rescuers had to be ‘very careful and move slowly, to avoid new collapses’.
The local fire service said that it is likely that a gas explosion caused the building to collapse (Picture: REUTERS)
Rescuers found the bodies of the children first, a six-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl, before finding the body of their mother a few hours later.
Mayor Vincenzo Simonelli was at the scene and told reporters the building appeared ‘crumpled up on itself,’ adding it was ‘a very serious situation’.
The gas explosion appears to have rocked the second floor of the building which crumpled down, covering the lower floor with rubble.
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