Death toll rises to 7 in Sicily gas leak blast, 2 missing

MILAN (AP) — Rescue workers in Sicily have recovered four more bodies in the rubble of buildings that collapsed following a gas leak explosion, bringing to seven the number of confirmed dead, firefighters said Monday.

Firefighters and civil protection agency volunteers were digging with their bare hands in the search for two more people believe still buried inside the pile of collapsed concrete and metal, more than a day and a half after the blast that authorities traced to a gas line.

Two elderly women were rescued in the hours after the blast that hit the Sicilian town of Ravanusa on Saturday evening. Three other bodies were recovered on Sunday.

Workers have recovered the bodies of a heavily pregnant woman, her husband and his parents, whom the young couple had been visiting.

Four buildings collapsed in the explosion that was felt kilometers (miles) away.