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Murdered Italian student's handbag found in Egypt after police, gang shootout

Xinhua, March 25, 2016 Adjust font size:

Egyptian police Thursday found the handbag of murdered Italian student Giulio Regeni, after killing a four-member gang in a shootout and searching a residence of one of the members' relatives.

The gang were driving a microbus on the outskirts of Cairo when they were confronted by a checkpoint and started shooting at the security forces before they were all killed in the shootout, the Egyptian Interior Ministry said in a statement on Thursday evening.

The police then searched the residence of the sister of one of the gang members in Qalioubiya province near Cairo, where they found the handbag of the Italian student, the ministry added.

The statement included a picture of Regeni's student card from the American University in Cairo, with his photo, name and status as research assistant.

Regeni, a Ph.D. student in his late 20s, reportedly disappeared in Cairo on Jan. 25 while the country was marking the National Police Day amid intensive security presence, which coincides with the fifth anniversary of the political turmoil that toppled long-time leader Hosni Mubarak.

Regeni's tortured, half-naked dead body was found in early February on a highway on the outskirts of Cairo.

Facing claims of police abuses at home, the Egyptian police recurrently rejected circulating charges of involvement in Regeni's killing and denied having arrested him in Cairo before his murder, accusing Western media of circulating "false news."

Italy, one of Egypt's most important Western economic and trade partners, has sent a team of detectives to Cairo to join in the probe into Regeni's death.

Thursday's police statement identified the four criminals whose ages varied between 26 and 60, three of whom had criminal records, and said the gang specialized in abducting and robbing foreigners, disguising themselves as police.

The gang had also robbed six Egyptians, a Portuguese, a Nigerian and another Italian, the statement said.

"The police found in their microbus a gunned dead body of an unknown person in his 20s that is currently being identified," said the statement. Endi