A schoolgirl was allegedly dragged behind a bush and raped while waiting for a bus in Italy.
The girl, aged 14, was allegedly raped by a 40-year-old Pakistani man in the Casanova district of the northern Italian city of Bolzano at 7.30pm on October 25.
The teenager, from Bolzano, was wearing headphones and listening to music while waiting at the bus stop for the next bus when the man approached the girl.
He told the girl he wasn’t from the area and asked for directions, but his questions soon turned sexual.
The 14-year-old girl tried to flee, but the man quickly caught up with her, grabbed her and dragged her behind a bush where he raped her, according to the Italian media Corriere.
The girl, aged 14, was allegedly raped by a 40-year-old Pakistani man in the Casanova district of the northern Italian city of Bolzano (pictured from above) shortly before 8pm on October 25. .
The girl was reportedly screaming and defending herself during the assault, but no one heard her cries for help in the isolated area of Bolzano.
He managed to free himself after 15 minutes by hitting his attacker with his elbow.
The crying teen ran away and asked for help from a woman who lived in the neighborhood, who called the police and waited with the shocked victim until emergency services arrived.
The girl was taken to the hospital for treatment.
The attacker fled but was detained by the police when he was about to board a bus heading to the center of Bolzano.
Police said the alleged rapist is a 40-year-old Pakistani man who lives in Bolzano, where he is detained because he faces a charge of aggravated sexual assault.
He was brought before a judge on October 26, who ordered that the man remain in prison because he is a flight risk. The judge also feared that the man could commit another attack if he was released.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini shared the case on social media and wrote: “Let’s see if also in this case there will be a judge who forces us to keep this precious foreign “resource” also in Italy…”
The Pakistani had reportedly lived legally in Italy for years and worked in Verona before recently moving to Bolzano to work in a restaurant.
The alleged rape caused outrage in Italy, with Bolzano residents planning to take part in a torchlight procession to protest the crime next week.