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Fire in Hospital Near Rome Kills at Least 4

People walk next to fire engines parked at the San Giovanni Evangelista hospital, following a deadly fire, in Tivoli, around 30 km from Rome, Italy December 9, 2023. Vigili del fuoco/Handout via REUTERS
People walk next to fire engines parked at the San Giovanni Evangelista hospital, following a deadly fire, in Tivoli, around 30 km from Rome, Italy December 9, 2023. Vigili del fuoco/Handout via REUTERS
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Fire in Hospital Near Rome Kills at Least 4

People walk next to fire engines parked at the San Giovanni Evangelista hospital, following a deadly fire, in Tivoli, around 30 km from Rome, Italy December 9, 2023. Vigili del fuoco/Handout via REUTERS
People walk next to fire engines parked at the San Giovanni Evangelista hospital, following a deadly fire, in Tivoli, around 30 km from Rome, Italy December 9, 2023. Vigili del fuoco/Handout via REUTERS

A fire broke out in a hospital on Rome's outskirts, killing at least four people and forcing the evacuation of the facility and its patients, officials said Saturday.

Patients in intensive care at St. John the Evangelist hospital in Tivoli were transferred immediately to other hospitals via ambulance, the Tivoli mayor’s office said in a statement. Less-critical patients were moved into a nearby municipal gymnasium pending transfer to other facilities, the Associated Press reported.

The blaze began late Friday and was eventually brought under control and four people were confirmed killed, the fire department said in a statement.

Video — released by the department — showed fire crews on ladders trying to reach the upper floors of the hospital as smoke billowed out.

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Trump Says He Might Demand Panama Hand over Canal

This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
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Trump Says He Might Demand Panama Hand over Canal

This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)
This handout picture released by the Panama Canal Authority on August 30, 2024, shows the container ship MSC Marie, of 366 meters long and 51 meters wide, transiting the Panama Canal in Panama. (Handout / Panama Canal Authority / AFP)

President-elect Donald Trump on Saturday accused Panama of charging excessive rates for use of the Panama Canal and said that if Panama did not manage the canal in an acceptable fashion, he would demand the US ally hand it over.

In an evening post on Truth Social, Trump also warned he would not let the canal fall into the "wrong hands," and he seemed to warn of potential Chinese influence on the passage, writing the canal should not be managed by China.

The post was an exceedingly rare example of a US leader saying he could push a sovereign country to hand over territory. It also underlines an expected shift in US diplomacy under Trump, who has not historically shied away from threatening allies and using bellicose rhetoric when dealing with counterparts.

The United States largely built the canal and administrated territory surrounding the passage for decades. But the US government fully handed control of the canal to Panama in 1999 after a period of joint administration.

"The fees being charged by Panama are ridiculous, especially knowing the extraordinary generosity that has been bestowed to Panama by the US," Trump wrote in his Truth Social post.

"It was not given for the benefit of others, but merely as a token of cooperation with us and Panama. If the principles, both moral and legal, of this magnanimous gesture of giving are not followed, then we will demand that the Panama Canal be returned to us, in full, and without question."

The Panamanian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.