Giulio Regeni disappeared on 25 January – the five-year anniversary of the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s rule

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

An Italian student from Cambridge University who went missing last week in Cairo is probably dead, the Italian foreign ministry has said, adding that it is still waiting for official confirmation from Egyptian authorities.

Giulio Regeni, 28, disappeared on 25 January – the five-year anniversary of the 2011 uprising that ended Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule in Egypt – his friends and the Italian foreign ministry said.

Tensions were high in the run-up to the anniversary, with police detaining activists and warning against protests. No significant protests took place.

“The Italian government had learned of the probable tragic end to this affair,” the foreign ministry in Rome said in a statement on Wednesday.

While the government was awaiting confirmation of what had happened, Italy’s foreign minister, Paolo Gentiloni, expressed his deep condolences to Regeni’s family, the statement added.

The foreign ministry did not give any indication of how Regeni might have died or whether his body had been found. Italian news agency Ansa said his body had been found in a ditch in a Cairo suburb but gave no further information.

A friend of Regeni said he disappeared after leaving his home in an upper middle-class area to meet a friend downtown.

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