Four nuns arrested in Italy for violence against children

Italian police have arrested four nuns from a church institution for children on the southern island of Ischia for violence against minors, they said on Wednesday.

The women involved were the head of the institution and three other nuns, according to the police.

The investigation was prompted by a video filmed by a child, showing one of the sisters slapping a four-year-old and pulling his hair while others watched.

According to the police, the recording showed the child's eight-year-old brother trying to intervene but being hit by the nun, giving him a nosebleed.

The facility in the north of the popular holiday island, off the coast from Naples, housed minors awaiting foster care or adoption, as well as children living there as a result of a court order, the statement said.

Investigators said they had uncovered other cases of minors being hit in the neck or on the hands with slippers. One of the four nuns has been sent to prison. The other three are no longer allowed to enter the Campania region, to which Ischia belongs, following a court order.