Drugged tourist killed by train

An American tourist was killed by a train in a Rome station as he walked on the tracks in a state of confusion after being robbed by a man who offered him a cappuccino laced with drugs, Italian police said yesterday.

Police had initially thought that Frank Phel, a Hungarian-born US citizen, committed suicide by throwing himself under an incoming train at the Tiburtina station on Friday morning.

But security cameras and testimony from Mr Phel's wife, who was with him at the station, revealed that an Italian they had been chatting with bought them cappuccinos, added in a mix of sleeping pills and robbed them. The next morning Mr Phel, still under the influence of the drugged cappuccino, stumbled near the tracks by accident and was hit by the train.

The Italian man has been arrested and accused of murder and robbery.