Parents Chase After Son, All 3 Perish in Volcano Crater

A 7-year-old boy is the sole surviving member of a family that was wiped out in a horrific accident near Naples, Italy, on Tuesday. 

Reports conflict, but in general they agree that the Italian family's 11-year-old son crossed a protective barrier and entered an area of the Solfatara volcanic crater that's off-limits to tourists. 

His parents, said to be 42 and 45, went to retrieve him and their weight apparently caused a hole—some reports have it at 5 feet deep, others at nearly 10—to open. It's unclear what killed them, but the leading theories are gas fumes or burns. ANSA describes them as falling into a "pit of boiling-hot mud."

Read the full story on Newser.com

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Photo: Getty Images


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