One person was killed, and several others, including children, were missing early Sunday in the Sicilian town of Ravanusa after multiple buildings collapsed following a gas explosion, Italian emergency services reported.

One of the buildings was on fire following the explosion, which occurred at approximately 8:30 p.m. local time on Saturday.

According to Sicily's civil protection agency, DRPC Sicilia, the explosion occurred in a community of 11,000 people near the Sicilian city of Agrigento.

However, the Italian news agency ANSA later reported that six buildings had been struck.

Rescue crews could extinguish the fire caused by the explosion at about 11:15 p.m. Still, emergency personnel could not approach the scene due to "pockets of gas," according to DRPC Sicilia.

Around 250 rescuers, including volunteers from civil protection, joined the operation, which sniffing dogs and aerial drones helped.

They began searching the rubble for missing residents; among them were a young couple expecting their first child and two children.

One dead was recovered from the wreckage, according to DRPC Sicilia, while two women were rescued and a further eight individuals remained missing.

Older women rescued

An elderly woman was rescued from the wreckage of a structure "probably near to those affected by the disaster," DRPC Sicilia stated early Sunday in an update.

According to the civil protection unit, she had minor injuries and was sent to a hospital in the adjacent city of Licata. It stated that she sustained minor injuries, including fractures.

Another woman – believed to be the first woman's sister — was extracted shortly afterward, according to Salvo Cocina, head of DRPC Sicilia.

According to ANSA, nine of those still missing were in the same building at the explosion.

"The search for the other missing persons by urban search and rescue and canine units continues unabated," firemen stated in a tweet.