Italian journalist Cecilia Sala was detained by Tehran police last Thursday while in Iran for a reporting assignment, the Italian Foreign Ministry confirmed on Friday. In a statement, the ministry said the Italian embassy and consulate in Tehran have been closely monitoring the situation.

Italian journalist Cecilia Sala has been detained in Tehran, Italy’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday. She was in Iran on a reporting trip.

Her phone suddenly went silent, none of her Iranian contacts knew what had happened to her, but the following day the journalist made two very short phone calls, one to her mother and one to her partner,