A single-engine touring plane crashed into Milan’s tallest skyscraper late Thursday afternoon, injuring 30 according to Italian newspapers and 60 according to intial reports from U.S. news services.

Immediately after the crash, the national Italian paper, La Repubblica, reported Senate President Marcello Pera said the crash was “most probably” a terrorist attack. Italy immediately evacuated the Milan train station, closed trading on the country’s Milan-based stock market and contacted U.S. President Bush to alert him of the situation.

American news services reported on these initial panicked reactions.

The initial report by La Repubblica and American wires said the plane was in flames and issued a SOS emergency call when it crashed into the tower.

“I first noticed the plane because it was flying very low,” Fabio Bonocore, a storeowner near the tower, told La Repubblica.

In the moments following the attack, Milan citizens flooded onto the street to watch the scene unfold.

“I felt a violent blow, I turned my head, and I felt like I was reliving the images from the Twin Towers in New York. Glass and paper flew into the sky and then smoke,” Mariangela Garavaglia, who worked in a nearby building, told La Repubblica.

Several hours later, La Repubblica updated the story online. It said the pilot was 68-year-old Luigi Fasulo and the aircraft was in very little contact with Milan’s Linate airport control tower. Fasulo was starting the procedure for landing but was not heading toward his designated runway.

La Repubblica reported Fasulo said he was having “small problems with the landing gear.” Contrary to earlier reports, he never issued an SOS warning.

Fasulo was then told to turn west in order to make an emergency landing in a nearby field. He ignored these instructions and proceeded north. Air traffic control alerted Fasulo he was flying in the wrong direction and he responded he had fixed the problem with the landing gear.

The tower next instructed Fasulo to correct his course and proceed with the original landing instructions, and he did not respond. The tower attempted to call Fasulo two more times without response. Moments later, he crashed into the building, leaving three dead and more than 30 injured.

Several hours after this information was released in Italy, American wire services updated their reports; however, U.S. reports contradicted those released by La Repubblica. The number of victims and the occupation of one victim were not consistent in the reports.

U.S. reports said the second victim was an office cleaning woman instead of a lawyer as reported by La Repubblica, and that 60 were injured rather than 30.

La Repubblica reports said 2000 people work in the Pirellone building, while American wire services said 1300.

— Kate MacDonald translated reports from La Repubblica.