UPDATE 2-More than 20 injured in blast at Rome petrol station

More than 20 people, including nine police officers and a firefighter, were injured on Friday in a huge explosion at a petrol station in an eastern district of Rome, Italian authorities said.

Website Roma Today published a photograph of a huge ball of flame and smoke rising high into the sky. Separate images released by the fire department showed the petrol station almost completely gutted. Apart from the first responders, 16 civilians including the manager of the station were injured, the head of Rome's police, Roberto Massucci, was quoted by Italian news agencies as saying. He added that no one was in a life-threatening condition.

Health authorities said five people were hospitalised with minor burns and injuries from shattered glass. The large blast at the distributor of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) in the Prenestino neighbourhood was heard across the Italian capital just after 8 am (0600 GMT).

"I pray for the people involved in the explosion of a gas station (...) in the heart of my Diocese. I continue to follow the developments of this tragic incident with concern," Pope Leo XIV wrote on X. Firefighters and ambulance workers were caught up in the blast as they had been called to the scene earlier, after a truck hit a pipeline at the fuel distributor, local reports said.

"We are working on a tank explosion ... the fire is still ongoing," the fire department said in a statement, adding that one of its officers had been hospitalised. A sports centre, which hosts a youth summer camp and sits opposite the station, was evacuated before the blast, a representative of the centre said in a Facebook video.

The fire spread to a nearby depot, and the shockwave from the explosion damaged nearby buildings. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was following the situation, her office said in a statement. (Additional reporting by Paolo Chiriatti in Rome; Editing by Giulia Segreti, Kate Mayberry anda Kim Coghill)

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