SUPHAN BURI - Police were hunting down a taxi driver who allegedly raped a young Brazilian woman in a paddy field in Song Phi Nong district late on Tuesday night.
The 22-year-old tourist flew from Kuala Lumpur to Bangkok to meet a friend on Tuesday. After arriving at Don Mueang airport about 1.30pm, she walked across the road in front of the airport, waved down a green-yellow taxi and asked to go to Soi Thong Lor in the inner city.
She later complained to police that the driver instead took her through the outskirts of the city to Suphan Buri, where she was later found in tambon Thung Khok of Song Phi Nong district. There he stopped the cab beside a paddy field and sexually assaulted her.
The woman said she resisted, but the driver overpowered and raped her. He then abandoned her by the paddy field, where she was found by a local resident, said Pol Capt Somkiart Srisangwan, deputy chief investigator at Thung Khok police station.
The resident took the injured woman tourist to a nearby hospital and called police, Thai media reported on Wednesday.
Pol Maj Gen Sukhun Prommayon, chief of Suphan Buri police, ordered a hunt for the taxi driver. A sketch was made of the alleged rapist and footage from surveillance cameras along the route to the rape scene were examined.
Thai-language media reported on Wednesday afternoon said the accused taxi driver had been caught in Nonthaburi and was being interrogated by police in Suphan Buri.