Two Italian air force pilots are dead after their planes collided mid-air and crashed to the ground during an exercise, the country’s armed forces said.

The two U-208s crashed near the Guidonia military airport, about 15 miles north-east of Rome.

No injuries on the ground were reported.

One of the planes crashed on to a car in a narrow residential street lined with apartment buildings.

The other landed in a field.

Premier Giorgia Meloni expressed her condolences to the pilots’ families and colleagues.