A transsexual implicated in a scandal surrounding a prominent Italian politician was found burned to death on Friday in a Rome apartment, media reports said.

Firefighters called to the blaze found the body of the transsexual who went by the name Brenda, the reports said.

Piero Marrazzo, governor of Rome's Lazio region, resigned after four police officers were arrested on accusations of blackmailing him with a video allegedly showing him with a transsexual.

Brenda testified to investigators in the affair early this month.

About 10 days ago she was reportedly intoxicated when she got into a fight with some hooligans who beat her and robbed her of her cell phone, according to the ANSA news agency.

Other transsexuals who turned up at the site of the fire said Brenda had shown suicidal tendencies in recent weeks, media reports said.

The scandal came as the centre-left Democratic Party was preparing to elect a new leader in a nationwide primary.

Marrazzo, a 51-year-old ex-journalist and television star who has governed Lazio since 2005, had originally told the media he was the victim of a political plot aimed at toppling him.

The four police officers are suspected of trying to extort up to €80 000 ($120 000) from him with the video, which Marrazzo initially said was fake, ruling out his resignation.

News media said cocaine was found in Marrazzo's apartment.

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AFP

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