Police foil minivan rape near Pondok Gede

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JAKARTA: Police say that officers foiled the attempted rape of a woman on a public minivan on the Jakarta-Cikampek toll road in the early hours of Saturday.

“Three officers were on a routine patrol in the toll road near the Pondok Gede tollgate at around 3:30 a.m. when they saw an M16 minivan parked on the road. They approached the vehicle, which tried to escape,” Adj. Sr. Comr. Sudarmanto, the head of the Jakarta Police Traffic Directorate’s law enforcement unit, told reporters.

As officers gave chase, the minivan swerved off the road and plunged into a ditch, the police said. The driver ran away.

A woman, identified as Y, 39, from Kalibata, South Jakarta, was found in the front passenger seat.

“She claimed that she was about to be raped by the public minivan driver,” Sudarmanto said. “When she was taken to the public service unit at the police headquarters, she gave incoherent answers regarding her identity.”

The minivan has been seized as police search for its driver.