A US tourist was hit and killed by a train in Rome as he was walking on the tracks in a daze after being drugged and robbed, railway police said.

Police official Giovanni Piccolantonio said that Frank Phel, 74, from California died at the suburban Tiburtina station early on Friday.

Piccolantonio said Phel and his wife drank drugged cappuccinos offered by a man who later robbed them and left them wandering around the station in a confused state.