Rome (CNN) Two 19-year-old Americans have been arrested while on vacation in Rome over the murder of an Italian police officer Friday, Italian police told CNN on Saturday.

The Carabinieri police force said in a statement that the pair were arrested Friday night for "the crime of aggravated murder and attempted extortion."

Police named the suspects as Christian Gabriel Natale Hjorth and Finnegan Lee Elder, and said both were from San Francisco. Photos of the pair have not been released.

Italian police officer Mario Cerciello Rega was stabbed eight times at 2 a.m. local time on Friday, in the Prati neighborhood of Rome on Via Pietro Cossa, near the hotel where the two young men were staying, police said. Officer Rega was declared dead at 4:30 a.m.

Mario, un carabiniere, un eroe, un ragazzo con tutta la vita davanti, era sposato da appena 40 giorni... pic.twitter.com/r2qY9bRecw — Matteo Salvini (@matteosalvinimi) July 26, 2019

The police statement said surveillance footage and witness testimonies had allowed the Capitoline Investigative Unit to identify the two responsible for the "heinous crime."

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