Mexico City - Some 30 teenage girls reported that police officers forced them to take their clothes off and took pictures of them naked following a raid on a Mexico City nightclub that left 12 people dead. Emilio Alvarez Icaza, president of the capital city's Human Rights Commission, said his agency was investigating the allegations made by the girls, who were arrested and taken to police facilities in the Friday raid on the disco News Divine.
The teenagers said that police took the photographs before taking them for questioning.
The city's public prosecutors were also investigating the allegations. If proved, charges of sexual abuse could be filed against police officers.
The raid set off a stampede that left nine teenagers and three police officers dead, mostly of suffocation, amid pushing and desperate shouts for air in the small nightclub, which held some 500 people at the time.
On Tuesday, 17 high-ranking police officials were fired for their roles in the raid, after the release of video that showed officers blocking the door of the nightclub to prevent patrons from fleeing during the raid, which was conducted in response to alleged underage drinking and drug use.
Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard has acknowledged that there were "serious mistakes" by police during the operation, though he also blamed the owner of the disco, who is under arrest.
