Carabinieri probed for raping US women (5)

(ANSA) - Florence, September 8 - Two Carabinieri officers have been placed under investigation on suspicion of raping two American university students while on duty in central Florence between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, sources said Friday.
    The 20-year-old women, who have not been named, were questioned again Friday and confirmed that they were raped by the two Carabinieri. Judicial sources said police had interviewed the women again separately and found no inconsistencies in the stories they provided.
    Forensic tests carried out on the women showed they had had sex recently.
    Biological samples of traces on their clothes were taken for comparison.
    According to the women, the Carabinieri intervened to stop a fight in the Flo disco near Piazzale Michelangelo and then accompanied them to their apartment building near the central up-market Via Tornabuoni, where they were allegedly raped.
    One Carabiniere raped one of the women in the lobby and the other officer raped her flatmate in the lift, according to a reconstruction based on the two women's testimony.
    The women were both said to be 20 years of age, and not 21 as previously reported.
    They were reportedly enrolled in one of the largest, private and Italian-run campuses in Florence that hosts American students.
    It receives up to 1,000 from various colleges each semester, source said.
    The US State Department told ANSA it was "taking very seriously" the allegations by the two university students.
    The US consul-general in Florence, Benjamin Wohlauer, met Florence police chief Alberto Intini for just under an hour Friday and left police HQ without commenting on the headline-grabbing case.
    Wohlauer also met with Carabinieri provincial chiefs and received assurances that the case would be treated with the "utmost transparency and rigour".
    The Carabinieri voiced their determination to "reassure all foreign citizens that the Corps has always been on the side of people, and will continue to be so.
    "This episode," they said, "must not undermine the hard work of men and women who put their lives on the line for citizens every day".
    Florence has more US university branches than almost all Italian cities and there are also very many schools for foreigners learning Italian.