London: A 20-year-old woman, locally identified as being of Indian heritage, was attacked in a “racially aggravated” rape in the West Midlands region of England over the weekend.
A police manhunt is on for a white male suspect following the attack on Saturday evening. The West Midlands Police said they were called to the Park Hall area of Walsall following concerns for the welfare of a woman in distress in the street.
The force on Sunday released CCTV footage of the suspect, in his 30s, as part of an urgent public appeal for information related to the crime they are investigating “as a racially aggravated attack”.
The West Midlands Police has issued an urgent appeal to trace a white male, who is suspected of carrying out the “racially aggravated” rape of the 20-year-old woman in Walsall.
The police added that it was called to the Park Hall area of Walsall on Saturday evening following concerns for the welfare of a woman in distress in the street.
After identifying the crime as a “racially aggravated attack”, the West Midlands police have released CCTV camera footage of the suspect as part of a public appeal for information.
The attacker has been described as white, in his 30s, with short hair and wearing dark clothing at the time of the incident.
“This was an absolutely appalling attack on a young woman, and we are doing absolutely everything we can to arrest the person responsible,” Detective Superintendent (DS) Ronan Tyrer, who is overseeing the investigation, said on Sunday.
“We have teams of officers recovering evidence and building a profile of the attacker so that he can be brought into custody as soon as possible. While we are following multiple lines of enquiry right now, it’s vital that we get to hear from anyone who saw a man acting suspiciously in the area at the time,” he said.
DS Tyrer further called on citizens with dashcam cameras and CCTV cameras in the neighboring areas to check their footage and share the information.
“It may be that you were driving through the area and have dashcam footage, or you have CCTV that we have not yet recovered. Your information could be the vital breakthrough that we need,” he added.
While details of the victim have not been released to protect the identity of the woman, news agency PTI reported that local community groups have claimed that the victim is a Punjabi woman.
Sikh Federation UK quoted local sources and said that the “young woman who was subject to a racially aggravated rape in Walsall is a Punjabi woman”.
“The attacker apparently broke down the door of the house where she was living… West Midlands Police have now had two racially aggravated rapes of young women in their 20s in the last two months and urgently need to find those responsible,” the organisation added in a statement shared on social media.
