Authorities are denying claims that Syrians gang-raped a child in a Twin Falls apartment complex earlier this month.

“There were no Syrians involved, there was no knife involved, there was no gang-rape,” Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs said Monday morning.

An incident did occur, he said, and two juveniles have been charged after authorities obtained video of the incident shot on a cellphone.

But it did not involve Syrian refugees, as numerous stories have claimed on social media and anti-refugee websites. According to those stories, young Syrian refugees gang raped a mentally disabled child at knife-point June 2 in the Fawnbrook Apartments.

A handful of people from Syria live in Twin Falls County — 11 Syrians were receiving food stamps in the county and eight were on Medicaid in 2015, according to the state’s statistics. However, Jan Reeves, director of the Idaho Office for Refugees, said no Syrian refugees have been resettled in Twin Falls.

“There have been periodic website postings about hundreds of Syrians coming to Idaho that have all proven to be false in the past, and this is probably just one of those attempts to try and stir up hatred and bigotry,” he said.

The criminal cases against the juveniles have been sealed, as is customary when children are charged.

The prosecutor received a report last Thursday from police. Refuting claims made in the stories online, Loebs said the police investigated the incident thoroughly, interviewed everyone who needed to be interviewed and followed proper protocols.

Loebs also said those involved are not “recent refugees.” He told fact-checking website Snopes.com that the boys involved are of Middle Eastern descent, but he had no information indicating they were refugees.

Loebs said the College of Southern Idaho Refugee Program did not resettle them and that the program has “absolutely nothing to do with this.”

Evidence stemming from the video recording helped support the charges, Loebs said.

According to stories posted online, an older boy allegedly spurred the younger boys on, but Loebs refuted that claim.

“All those involved are juveniles, and the older one didn’t touch the victim in any way,” Loebs said.

He said one person is alleged to have touched the victim, but he couldn’t elaborate on the details.

Last week, several speakers at a City Council meeting called on city officials to release more information about the incident and questioned whether authorities were covering it up. The story blew up over the weekend when the juveniles were arrested and was widely circulated on anti-refugee resettlement and anti-Muslim blogs such as Dr. Rich Swier, Refugee Resettlement Watch, Creeping Sharia and Info Wars.

According to these reports, three boys from two refugee families, ages 13, 9, and 8, forced a disabled 5-year-old girl at knifepoint into the laundry facilities of the apartment complex, where they sexually assaulted and urinated on her. The older boy allegedly coached the others and filmed it with his cellphone.

Supporters of the family started a Facebook group, "Justice For Our Children," that had almost 9,000 members as of Monday morning. They have also started a GoFundMe page to raisemoney to help the family move, and an online petition that hadmore than 1,100 signatures from all over the country as of Monday morning.

People concerned about the incident are expected to speak at this evening's City Council meeting.

Though no Syrians refugees have been resettled in Twin Falls, 35 have been resettled in Boise

“These were all families,” said Reeves, the director of the Idaho Office for Refugees. “They’re now resettled here. They’re moving on with their lives.”