return to timeline NUCLEAR EXPLOSION OVER ROME! World Leaders dismayed, Chaos over Europe (Milano) No contact to Rome is possible, as a great cloud of radioactive particles still rises above the city. Italy's Prime Minister Bagucci has raised martial law over the country and the military forces are being rushed to the outskirts of the explosion area to evacuate the survivors for medical care. The USA, China, Russia, and the European Union are all sending emergancy ABC special forces and medical aid to the country. Due to the communications infrastructure collapse in Italy, very little is known about the source of the explosion. Contacts within the European Air Control state that there had been no reports of airborne missiles before or during the explosion, allaying fears of a massed attacks. All communications to the so-called "terrorist axis" countries have been immediately dropped by the USA and the European Union until further information can be obtained. Experts fear that the explosion could cost hundreds of thousands of lives and that the lingering radiation effects could cause sickness in millions more in Italy and neighboring nations. This would be single worst attack on human lives since the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. "This has been our fear ever since the downfall of the Soviet Union," says one minister in the EU parlament. "That the atomic arsenal which has been developed for peace between the world powers would be used for death."