ROME: Two young siblings and a female relative were killed near Naples in southern Italy today, after the two-storey building where they lived collapsed, firefighters said.

The home fell in the morning in the locality of Saviano, killing a boy and a girl who lived there with their family, as well as a woman who has yet to be identified, believed to be either their mother or grandmother.

Rescuers recovered the father and a baby alive, "and unfortunately the lifeless bodies of the other two children," firefighters wrote on X today morning.

Local media gave the ages of the girl and boy as four and six.

After hours searching the rubble by hand helped by sniffer dogs, firefighters said they had located the body of another victim.

"We have identified under the rubble the body of a third victim we haven't identified yet," Luca Cari, a fire service spokesman, told RaiNews 24.

"It's a woman and they're carrying out the extraction from the rubble right now," he said, adding that the search for the final victim was "complex."

Local media identified the third victim as the grandmother of the children, who lived on the second floor, adding the mother was still missing.

More than 60 civil protection volunteers had joined the rescue efforts, the Campania region wrote on Facebook.

The father and the baby rescued from the rubble were recovering in the hospital, with the father in serious condition, media reports said.

Footage provided by firefighters showed two gaping holes in the roof of the building, which was partially collapsed.

The cause of the collapse may have been a gas explosion, news reports said.

 - AFP