Claims that as many as 6,000 people died in the explosion (which may be an exaggeration), places the event high on lists of accidents and disasters by death toll.
On August 18, 1769, the city of Brescia in northern Italy was devastated when the Bastion of San Nazaro was struck by lightning.
The resulting fire ignited about 90,000 kg (or about 200,000 lb) of gunpowder stored there by the Republic of Venice, causing a massive explosion.
Huge stones were hurled in a radius of a kilometer around the explosion, landing on people, houses and church buildings including Santi Nazaro e Celso.
[1] French writer Louis-Sébastien Mercier claimed in his popular 1770 novel L'An 2440, rêve s'il en fut jamais, which was translated into English as Memoirs of the year two thousand five hundred that by 1772, 2,500 died in the explosion.