Vittoria – The death toll from the tragedy that occurred yesterday in Vittoria, in the Ragusa area, has risen to two, where a citizen of Tunisian origin set fire to the family home with a rag soaked in flammable liquid at the height of an argument. After the man’s mother, Miriam, 55, who died shortly after the fire was started, his sister Sameh also died during the night. She was 34 years old, she was an employee of a large agricultural company in the area, she worked in the grafting room. She was hospitalized in the burns center of the Cannizzaro hospital in Catania, she had burns on 70 percent of her body which left her with no escape. Still hospitalized in very serious conditions are the father Kamel Zaouali, 57 years old (at the Palermo Civic Centre), with burns on 40% of his body, and his youngest daughter, Omaima, 19 years old, who underwent surgery and who in a few days would have to take his high school leaving exams at the Mazzini linguistic high school in Vittoria.
The person who caused the fire in the house was the son of the Zaouali family, 29 years old, who was in custody. According to the latest information, he was stopped by the police while wandering in a countryside area. At the height of an argument he piled up some tires in front of the house, then set it on fire with a torch wrapped in a rag soaked in flammable liquid. The charges for him will be very serious: premeditated voluntary homicide aggravated by cruelty and family ties, attempted murder.
The house was destroyed. A fourth daughter escaped the tragedy, but only because she was not at home: she studies at the University of Turin and is returning to Vittoria.
“They ran into the square and were unrecognizable, they were human torches screaming and asking for help. Some people took to the street with blankets to wrap them up and put out the flames. A blanket then remained attached to the body. Some young Tunisians, with courage, they entered the house in the flames and pulled out the mother, who was now unrecognizable, and placed her on the ground. Help arrived almost immediately, but none of them were saved from the flames,” a woman said. The funeral should take place in the mosque in via Montebello.
