Rescue workers pulled a body from the rubble of a partially collapsed building in Messina on Thursday, leaving five people still unaccounted for in the disaster on Sicily's northeastern coast.
The three-storey building housing shops and apartments crumbled along the SS114 highway in the southern suburb of Pistunina. Mayor Federico Basile initially reported seven missing before the toll was revised to six, including four members of one family, a domestic worker and a shop assistant. Three injured workers were hospitalised, and firefighters extinguished a small blaze that broke out after the collapse. Crews are using mobile phone signals from the missing to guide the search.
Fire chief Michele Burgio said it was premature to determine the cause, though authorities suspect structural failure rather than an explosion. The Messina prosecutor's office has opened an investigation against unknown persons. Basile has activated the municipal emergency operations centre.