A French investigating magistrate has dropped a rape case filed by a Norwegian woman who accused six members of the Paris fire brigade of raping her in 2019, a judicial source said on Sunday.

The magistrate made the decision on April 28, the source — who asked not to be named — told AFP, confirming a report in the Le Parisien newspaper.

The women, a student and aged 20 at the time of the alleged events, accused the firemen of raping her at their barracks in the French capital on a night in May 2019.

She said she had a consensual relationship with one of the firemen she met in a bar, but was then raped by others.

Prosecutors opened an investigation into gang rape but the firemen insisted all sexual activity was consensual and they have never been charged in the case.

The investigating magistrate found there was not sufficient evidence to continue proceedings against the firemen, who at the time where aged 23-35, said the judicial source.

“It does not appear that the plaintiff was subjected to real violence, physical constraint or threats” or showed “a refusal and any resistance when new partners arrived,” said the ruling cited by Le Parisien.

Geraldine Vallat, a layer for one of the firemen, welcomed the ruling as a “relief” but said the accusations “had broken the dreams of a professional career” as all the men had been suspended during the case.

The Paris fire brigade is a unit of the ground army which intervenes in all emergency situations in the French capital. It is seen as a prestigious force but its image has been tainted by allegations of sexual harassment and assault in recent years.