A fireball erupted over Rome this morning as an explosion ripped through a petrol station.

At least eight police officers and emergency service personnel are said to have been injured in the blast, after firefighters had been called to tend to a lorry that had hit a pipeline.

Paramedics and responders were already at the scene when the petrol station blew up - with dramatic footage showing debris flying through the air as it happened.

One nearby resident told local media: "I woke up with a start, I heard a very loud explosion, it sounded like a bomb."

Il video dell'impressionante esplosione avvenuta a Roma questa mattina poco dopo le 8: tutto è accaduto in una pompa di benzina nella zona Est della Capitale, in via dei Gordiani. pic.twitter.com/8WGqy77Fw3

— Lettera43 (@Lettera43) July 4, 2025

"All the windows shook, I thought it was an earthquake," another eyewitness said.

One other added: "We didn't understand what it was, all the windows shook. It could have been a bomb, an earthquake, we didn't understand. Then from the smoke we understood it was an explosion."

The Vigili del Fuoco, Italy's fire brigade, said in a statement that 10 teams are working to extinguish the flames affecting a judicial depot at the rear of the petrol station.

"Several injured people have been assisted," it said.

Elisabetta Accardo, of the Rome prosecutor's office, warned that the inferno "is not yet under control" with the explosion "causing chain reactions".

"The provisional toll is eight police officers with burns... their lives are not in danger," she added.