New Delhi, 11 July

TV actors Divyanka Tripathi and Vivek Dahiya, in Florence for a holiday, lost their passports, cash and cards when thieves smashed the window of their vehicle while they were at a resort close to the Italian tourist town.

They are in the process of getting an FIR registered and are awaiting help from the Indian Embassy, Tripathi told PTI over the phone from Florence on Thursday.

The incident took place on Wednesday afternoon (local time). But it was already evening by the time they realised they had been looted, the "Yeh Hai Mohabbatein" actor added. "We were inside the hotel property. We were hungry and the hotel knew that we had stuff inside the car... We were checking into the hotel the same day. They told us we can leave our things in the car while we had our food. We thought it was all safe since it's a resort property and not on the street," Tripathi said.

The resort is about half an hour away from Florence.

According to the actor, either her husband and she were followed or incidents like this happen regularly. "The thieves broke the window, took all the stuff that was in the rear seat... whatever we had brought from India -- passports, cards, cash, everything is gone. I was stunned. The hotel people are helping us. The property didn't have CCTV, so we made a video and took photos for proof," Tripathi said.

After 6 pm, she claimed, no one can get a report filed anywhere in Italy. "So if anything happens between 6 pm to 9 am, you can't do anything about it. We are going to the police station to file the report, we are hoping thereafter things get easier and we manage to get in touch with somebody from the Indian Embassy," she said.