American College Student Found Dead In Rome

Update: 4:06pm

An American college student found dead in a Rome railroad tunnel had been hit by a train, police said Saturday.

John Durkin, a junior economics major at Bates College in Maine, was little more than month into his semester-long study in Rome when he left a bar alone after a night out with friends, CBS News reports.

Durkin, 21, was a linebacker on his college football team, and hailed from Rye Beach, N.H. He was studying in Rome through Trinity College in Connecticut.

The State Department confirmed Durkin’s death and said the U.S. Embassy in Rome was providing consular assistance to his family. Italian authorities are investigating the events leading up to his death.

This story was updated to include an Italian police statement about the cause of Durkin’s death.

[CBS News]