A Ukrainian refugee and her friends died when their rental Porsche crashed in flames while doing over 155mph.
Luigi Perruccio, Sara Capilunga, and Karina Ryzhkova – aged 22, 21, and 21 respectively – were killed instantly.
The horror unfolded when the luxury car veered off the road and overturned.
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It burst into flames when it crashed into a centuries-old olive tree.
The accident happened between Torchiarolo and Lendinuso, near Lecce in Italy’s ‘heel’
The Porsche reached its top speed in the minutes leading up to the crash on Saturday (3 May) evening, as reported by Need To Know.
Firefighters were dispatched to the scene to recover the friends’ charred bodies from the wreckage.
One of Luigi’s friends had rented the Porsche from an agency in Brindisi and loaned it out to him just a few hours before the tragedy.
Karina had moved to Italy a few months after Russia invaded her native Ukraine.
She lived in Torchiarolo with a local couple.
Her adoptive father was one of the first people to arrive at the scene of the tragedy.
After the crash, he had received an alert on his phone, which was linked to the Porsche’s GPS.
After following the signal to the scene, he fell ill at the horror sight of the burnt car with Karina inside.
He was assisted by paramedics who were already at the scene.
The tragedy is under investigation.
The Torchiarolo local council wrote on social media: “Luigi, Sara, and Karina – wonderful young lives taken far too soon – you will always be in our hearts.”
Their funerals will be held in Torchiarolo tomorrow (6 May).
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