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U.S. Students in Florence Accuse Police Officers of Rape

ROME — The Italian authorities are investigating accusations by two American women studying abroad in Florence that they were raped on Thursday by two uniformed members of Italy’s Carabinieri police force, and Italy’s defense minister said there appeared to be “some basis” to the allegations.

The accusations have generated considerable coverage in the country’s news media and have shaken Florence’s large community of people involved in study-abroad programs.

“Rape is always a serious matter,” Defense Minister Roberta Pinotti said Friday at a conference on women’s issues. “But it’s of unprecedented seriousness if it is committed by Carabinieri in uniform.” The Carabinieri is a paramilitary police force that operates under the control of the Defense Ministry.

The two women — 19 and 21, according to local news media reports — have accused the two police officers of raping them in the entrance and elevator of their apartment building in the center of Florence before dawn on Thursday. The officers, who are reportedly in their 30s, have denied the allegations, and they have not been charged.

The officers had responded to a call at a club, Flo, where a brawl had broken out and apparently met the women there, according to Italian officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation.

The Florence police said the club’s cameras showed the women leaving with two officers. The women told prosecutors that they were intoxicated and had smoked marijuana that evening, according to Italian news media reports, and that the officers accompanied them to their apartment in a service vehicle. The women live in Borgo Santi Apostoli, in the historic center of the city.

Prosecutors in Florence are investigating the accusations and have taken statements from the two women, who, according to Italian news media reports, are from New Jersey and Maine, and are studying at Lorenzo de’ Medici – The Italian International Institute. The Italian authorities have collected potential evidence, including the women’s clothes, and the women underwent medical examinations and DNA tests at a Florence hospital.

Florence is Italy’s center for study-abroad programs and is a popular destination for American students. Many leading American universities operate programs in the city and house students in villas there.

The explosive allegations have dominated news coverage throughout Italy, with articles about them at the top of the country’s newspapers and news websites. On Saturday, the website of Italy’s largest newspaper, Corriere della Sera, featured a video with illustrations depicting the night’s events set to haunting piano music.

“If this is true, and I hope that light is shed on the matter as soon as possible, then it would be an act of unheard-of gravity,” Gen. Tullio Del Sette, the commander of the Carabinieri, told the ANSA news agency.

A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 8 of the New York edition with the headline: Italy Investigates Claim by Americans That 2 Florence Officers Raped Them. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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