Italian police have arrested three people in connection with the murder of four migrant farm workers whose bodies were found in a burnt-out minivan at a petrol station in the southern Calabria region. Firefighters called to the scene on Tuesday afternoon discovered the four charred bodies after extinguishing the blaze. CCTV footage from the petrol station near the village of Amendolara proved critical to the investigation, capturing two suspects blocking the van's doors from the outside and throwing an accelerant inside before setting the vehicle alight and walking away.

A fifth man, from Afghanistan, survived the attack by breaking a window and escaping the flames. He told Italian media that the four victims included three Afghans and a Pakistani national, all of whom had been working in the region's strawberry fields. According to the survivor, a dispute broke out after the attackers demanded money for transportation, which those inside the van refused to pay. He also alleged that the workers had not received wages for their agricultural labour, though they had been provided with food and accommodation.

Calabia is a vast farming region at the tip of Italy's southern peninsula, where large numbers of migrants from Asia and Africa work as seasonal labourers, often for very low pay and in precarious conditions. Reports indicate there had been at least 14 similar cases of arson targeting cars and minivans carrying Pakistani migrants in the area in recent months, pointing to simmering tensions among migrant communities over the allocation of farm work and housing.

The killings have provoked widespread outrage across Italy. Calabria's regional president, Roberto Occhiuto, said the attack