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MILAN

Milan tower block goes up in flames

Fire ripped through a 20-storey residential building in Milan on Sunday evening, leaving rescue workers scrambling to make sure no one had been caught in the spectacular flames and thick smoke.

Firefighters are seen at the site where a 20 storey residential building is ravaged by a fire in Milan. Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP
Firefighters are seen at the site where a 20 storey residential building is ravaged by a fire in Milan. Piero CRUCIATTI / AFP

The blaze started on the upper floors of the tower on the southern outskirts of the capital of the Lombardy region.

The flames then spread to the lower levels causing thick smoke, the fire services said on a Twitter account.

Dramatic helicopter footage showing the extent of the blaze was also published on the national fire service’s Twitter account.

Dozens of ambulances and fire engines attended the scene. Approximately 20 residents were reported to have suffered mild smoke inhalation.

As of Monday morning, firefighters were still working to extinguish the flames, reports Italy’s national news agency Ansa.

The 30 residents who were inside the building when the fire started have all been safely evacuated, according to the Corriere della Sera newspaper.

“We are finding hotel rooms but it is clear that these people have lost everything,” Milan’s mayor Giuseppe Sala told Rai News on Sunday evening.

“The magistrate is here and it will be important to immediately establish responsibility”.

The building is now at risk of collapse, said Corriere della Sera, and an investigation for culpable disaster has been opened to determine responsibility.

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MILAN

Romanian billionaire and seven others die in Milan plane crash

A light aircraft piloted by Romanian billionaire Dan Petrescu crashed into an empty office building near Milan on Sunday, killing him, his wife and son, and all five others aboard.

Police and rescue teams outside the office building where a small plane crashed in the Milan suburb of San Donato.
Police and rescue teams outside the office building where a small plane crashed in the Milan suburb of San Donato on October 3rd. Photo: Miguel Medina/AFP

The single-engine Pilatus PC-12 had taken off from Milan’s Linate airport shortly after 1pm headed for Olbia in the north of the Italian island of Sardinia.

It crashed just a few minutes later into a building in San Donato Milanese, a town southeast of Milan, according to aviation agency ANSV, which has opened an investigation.

Witnesses said the plane was already in flames before it crashed into an office building undergoing renovations.

Petrescu’s 65-year-old wife, who also had French nationality, and their son Dan Stefano, 30, were killed.

Italian media identified the other passengers as entrepreneur Filippo Nascimbene, a 33-year-old from Lombardy, with his wife, young son and mother-in-law, who have French nationality.

Petrescu, 68, was one of Romania’s richest men. He headed a major construction firm and owned a string of hypermarkets and malls. He also held Germany nationality, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported.

Flames engulfed the two-storey building, next to the yellow line subway terminus.

“The impact was devastating,” Carlo Cardinali, of the Milan fire brigade, told news agency Ansa.

Deputy prosecutor Tiziana Siciliano was quoted by Corriere as saying that the plane’s black box had been recovered.

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