Successful manhunt

Sexual assaults: police arrest serial offenders

The 17-year-old had threatened some of his victims with a knife.

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/eliosdnepr)

Over the past two months, five women in the Feldkirch district have been victims of sexual assault. Now the police have been able to put a stop to the suspected perpetrator, a 17-year-old teenager.

The young man had always followed the same pattern: He threatened the women - sometimes with a knife, sometimes with a glass bottle - and tried to coerce them into sexual intercourse. On Tuesday, he struck again in Feldkirch, this time trying to force intercourse with a beer bottle. However, the victim was able to break away and flee. In the course of an immediate manhunt involving several police patrols, the perpetrator, a 17-year-old youth, was finally arrested in the center of Feldkirch.

The police assume that he is also responsible for the other assaults. In any case, the criminal investigation is in full swing, witnesses and victims are being questioned and traces and cell phone data are being evaluated.

Are there other victims?
It cannot be ruled out that the 17-year-old has also assaulted other women - anyone who has been a victim or witness to such an act should contact the Vorarlberg State Criminal Police Office (059 133 80 3333) immediately.

The suspect is a 17-year-old Austrian citizen who, according to the police, looks a little older and speaks German without an accent or dialect. The suspect is in police custody.