Two French police officers have been detained and suspended over allegedly raping a young woman while she was in custody at a court, a prosecutor and police chief said Thursday.

The woman who accused the two officers said the alleged assault took place overnight Tuesday to Wednesday in Bobigny, a town north of Paris, prosecutor Eric Mathais said.

She had been brought before the Bobigny public prosecutor?s office for ?acts of parental neglect?, he added.

The woman is 26, while the two accused officers ? who ?have not been police officers for long? ? are 23 and 35, according to a source close to the case, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The policemen were being held in custody on Thursday, Mathais said.

Paris police prefect Patrice Faure said in a post on X that he had ?immediately suspended? the two officers.

The officers filled out an administrative report laying down their version of events, a second source close to the case said, also speaking on the condition of anonymity.

France?s internal police investigation service, the IGPN, is looking into the case.

In a separate incident, a police officer is due to stand trial next year for raping a woman inside a police station in the Seine-et-Marne region, also near Paris.

The plaintiff, an undocumented woman of Angolan nationality, reported being raped twice by the officer in 2023.

She had gone to the station to file a domestic violence complaint, according to French daily Liberation.

France has been rocked by a series of high-profile rape cases in recent months that have sparked a debate about consent.

Its parliament on Wednesday adopted a bill defining rape as any non-consensual sexual act, a vote hailed by supporters as a move from ?a culture of rape to a culture of consent?. (The Guardian)

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