A young brother and sister were killed near Naples, Italy, on Sunday after the building where they lived collapsed, firefighters said. 

The collapse occurred Sunday morning in Saviano, killing the two children who lived there with their family, the authorities said. 

"Firefighters recovered the father and a newborn alive, and unfortunately the lifeless bodies of the other two children," firefighters wrote on X. 

Sniffer dogs were on the sight searching through the rubble for the mother as well as another woman who lived in the building, they said. 

An image posted by firefighters appeared to show the walls of the second floor of the modest building blown out, with a large hole in the ceiling of the first floor.

Local media gave the ages of the girl and boy as four and five, and said the other person missing was an elderly woman who lived on another floor. 

The cause of the collapse may have been a gas explosion, news reports said.