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Firefighters work to extinguish a fire in a building after a van exploded in central Milan, northern Italy Alamy Stock Photo
Milan
One person injured as van carrying oxygen cylinders explodes in Milan
Television footage showed flames metres high on a residential street south-east of the Italian city’s cathedral, Duomo.
A VAN CARRYING oxygen cylinders has exploded in Milan, setting alight several cars and lightly injuring the driver, officials have said.
Television footage showed flames metres high on a residential street south-east of the Italian city’s cathedral, Duomo, with black smoke sweeping across the neighbourhood.
“It’s a van carrying oxygen cylinders,” Milan mayor Giuseppe Sala told reporters on the side-lines of the event, ruling out any deliberate attack.
“At the moment I’m told there is one injured … who I believe is the driver,” he said, according to the AGI news agency.
A fire service spokesman at the scene confirmed the van had been carrying oxygen and that one person was injured, the driver.
He said the cause of the blast was being investigated.
Another fire service spokesman earlier told AFP the person injured was hurt in the arms and legs, and said all buildings in the immediate vicinity had been evacuated.
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