Two people have died and three are missing after an explosion at a fuel depot near Florence, authorities have said.
Nine people have also been injured in the blast – with an emergency alert sent to everyone living within 5km of the site.
The blast reportedly shattered windows of nearby homes.
Italian energy group Eni, which owns the site, said the fire broke out on Monday morning at a fuel depot in Calenzano.
“The fire brigade is working to put out the flames, which are confined to the loading shelter area and do not affect the tanks in any way,” the firm added.
“The impacts and causes are being immediately verified. Updates will follow.”
Tuscany president Eugenio Giani said the region is “united in grief for the tragedy”, adding the fire was “quickly contained”.
“The smoke rose significantly due to the temperature difference between the smoke and the atmosphere,” he said.
According to Italian newspaper La Repubblica, masks have been distributed due to an “acrid smell”.
The paper also reports the local mayor, Giuseppe Carovani, said the incident “created a significant shock wave that shattered the windows of many homes”.
“The situation is back under control,” he added. “The indication is not to leave the house and keep the windows closed.”
Some of the injured are also in a “worrying” condition, he said, especially two of them.
Regional train services were also interrupted due to the smoke and local authorities said all scheduled events in the area for the rest of the day and for tomorrow are suspended.
An unknown disease has killed more than 50 people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), according to doctors.
The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Africa office said the first outbreak was discovered in the town of Boloko, in the northwest of the country.
It is reported that three children ate a bat and died following haemorrhagic fever symptoms.
The interval between the onset of symptoms and death has been 48 hours in the majority of cases.
“That’s what’s really worrying,” Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring centre, told the news agency, The Associated Press.
Image: An outbreak was reported in Boloko in January followed by more cases in Bomate in February
The outbreak began on 21 January and 419 cases have been recorded including 53 deaths.
There was a second outbreak of the mystery illness in the town of Bomate on 9 February.
Samples from 13 cases have been sent for testing to the National Institute for Biomedical Research in the DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, the WHO said.
All samples have been negative for Ebola or other common haemorrhagic fever diseases like Marburg. Some tested positive for malaria.
Last year, another mystery flu-like illness which killed dozens of people in another part of Congo was considered likely to be malaria.
The reason for their arrests was immediately unknown.
But the Taliban said on Tuesday that the couple were detained due to a “misunderstanding” that they had fake Afghan passports.
The four adult children of the couple said last week that their parents were married in Kabul in 1970 and have lived in Afghanistan for 18 years – remaining after the withdrawal of Western troops and the Taliban’s return to power in 2021.
The couple runs an organisation named Rebuild, which provides education and training programmes for businesses, government agencies, educational organisations and nongovernmental groups.
Mr and Mrs Reynolds, who are also Afghan citizens, allegedly texted their children after their arrests saying they did not want Western authorities to get involved.
In a letter to the Taliban, their children wrote: “Our parents have consistently expressed their commitment to Afghanistan, stating that they would rather sacrifice their lives than become part of ransom negotiations or be traded.
“We trust that this is not your intention, as we are instructed to respect their wishes to remain with you.”
The Taliban have released no further details nor confirmed if the couple have now been released.
On Monday, the BBC reported the Taliban as saying they would “endeavour” to release the couple “as soon as possible”.
Harun is sitting hunched on a bed with a sheet over his head.
He lives in a state of psychosis and wants to return to his home in central Khartoum.
He tells us where to turn and which bridges to cross to get him there.
The war has ripped away the stability that kept him sane and permeates the mental illness that now haunts his days.
Image: Harun lives in a state of psychosis – he may not be wounded but he is deeply scarred
“I have 37 bullets still inside me and a sniper shot me in my legs. I took 251 bullets in my legs and hip,” he says after lifting the blanket and pointing to parts of his body that show no signs of harm.
He may not have been wounded but he is deeply scarred.
We find him in a shelter for discharged hospital patients who cannot return home.
More on Sudan
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In a tented corner in the yard outside his ward, there are men nursing gunshot wounds and amputated limbs.
Badreldeen was trapped in the Shambat neighbourhood of Khartoum North as it was occupied by paramilitary fighters and militiamen belonging to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
“I told the RSF that we are not army soldiers. We are civilians but they just fired at us,” he says looking down at his bandaged leg.
As the RSF battles Sudan’s military for control of the capital and country, millions have been displaced and dispossessed with tens of thousands of people killed, injured and detained.
He adds: “In Shambat, lots of people died. Five people were killed in our street alone.”
Image: ‘We are civilians but they just fired at us,’ Badreldeen says looking down at his bandaged leg
Shambat is a residential district in Khartoum North – the northeastern wing of Sudan’s tri-capital known as Bahri – that has now been fully reclaimed by the military.
Some are slowly returning to their devastated homes in once-occupied areas and others wounded and brutalised under siege are flooding hospitals in the capital’s old city Omdurman.
The sounds of shells whizz over us as we move through Bahri’s southern edges.
Gunfire rings out aimed at positions just across the Blue Nile.
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1:26
On the frontline of the fight for Khartoum
The turning road to Kober Bridge and into Khartoum is bordered by a residential compound full of identical bullet-riddled orange blocks.
The charred, chewed-out corners of some of the buildings are a harsh break from uniformity.
The bridge is still intact but its base is a haunting scene.
An abandoned RSF position where blackened car bodies and beds are surrounded by stolen household items and hundreds of bullet and shrapnel shells.
A wedding dress and baby photos sit among the used ammunition.
The remnants of life ripped out of the surrounding homes and discarded.
We walk into a family home north of the bridge in Bahri and see what fills the houses instead.
Everything is turned over – couches, toy cars, roller skates, dishes.
Even the electric cables are ripped out of the walls.
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1:16
Inside the ‘world’s worst’ looting campaign
The corner of the living room is burnt by the wood broken off the antique furniture.
The clothes, cushions and anything of little monetary value are dumped in the centre of the room into a rubbish heap.
Shells boom as we leave the wreckage of the home and motorcycles with steely-eyed army soldiers whizz by on their way to the nearest front.
A military victory may be imminent in Sudan’s capital but a long road to restoration and recovery still lies ahead.
You can watch a special programme on Sudan tonight on The World with Yalda Hakim from 9pm on Sky News.
Yousra Elbagir reports from Khartoum North with camera Garwen McLuckie and producers Nkululeko Zulu and Chris Cunningham