Two schoolgirls sexually assaulted in Tamil Nadu

Two schoolgirls living in a hostel in Tamil Nadu's Pollachi town were sexually assaulted Thursday, a police official said.

"We are on the lookout for a person who attempted to rape two school girls, aged 13 and 10," a senior police official told IANS over phone from Pollachi, located around 510 km from here.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa announced a solatium of Rs.300,000 each for the girls. She also ordered officials to apprehend the culprit and draft safety rules for girls and women's hostels in the state.

In her statement, Jayalalithaa said the hostel warden was on leave and his deputy instead of staying at the hostel had gone home that night resulting in such an incident.

The police official said the girls were staying in the hostel together. One girl has been in the hostel for the past four years and the other girl had moved in three days back.

The hostel is located in the premises of Tamil Evangelical Lutheran Church (TELC) and the incident happened in the early hours of Thursday.

An unidentified man entered the hostel and lay down next to one of the sleeping girls. When she started shouting, he threatened the two girls and forcibly took them to a nearby building, said the official.

"When the girls started shouting again, people gathered around the building but the culprit managed to escape," the official said.

He said the complex that houses the hostel has several other buildings from where people gathered on hearing the commotion.