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A young woman was raped in the late hours of Saturday or the early hours of Monday in the town centre and police are now publicly appealing for any witnesses to the attack.
The police are already working on some clues about the perpetrator. The rape occurred around midnight on a small patch of grass between the Kajaanintie and Rautatie crossroads, close to the crossing on the north side. Police are particularly interested in hearing from taxi drivers who may have transported the rapist prior to the incident. The man and the victim shared a taxi together before the woman alighted part of the way through the journey. The woman was making her way away from the town centre and it appears that the man followed her before abducting her. The police want to examine the safety camera recordings of taxis operative in the area on the night of the incident. The victim, who was from outside of Oulu, was able to describe her attacker’s distinguishing features. He was between 18 and 20 years old, 170 centimetres tall and was wearing a tracksuit. The man had long, blonde hair. The crime police are busily combing the cycle path alongside the patch of grass. According to Kaleva, this year Oulu police have been investigating ten cases of rape and considering how to proceed. There has been an increase in incidents of sexual assault in the Oulu region. ‘Last year it was revealed that the number of these crimes is growing nationwide and Oulu is no exception’, claimed the chief constable of Oulu. Last year, in winter and spring, there were widely reported 'gang rapes' in Oulu which the victims claimed were perpetrated by ‘dark-skinned’ – 'though not black' – foreigners, none of which have yet been solved according to Oulu police, interviewed about the latest incident by Kaleva. Many Kaleva readers have been writing to the online edition suggesting that these rapes could be solved if there were simply more surveillance cameras put up around the city.
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