A seven-year-old girl in South Jeolla Province was kidnapped from her home on Thursday and raped. Her mother called police around 7:30 a.m. on Thursday after waking up and finding her daughter missing from their home in Naju.

The girl had been sleeping in the living room but had disappeared along with her blanket.

Police mobilized 160 officers for an extensive search starting around noon, combing through her neighborhood and downtown Naju. An hour later, police found the girl lying by the side of a riverside road around 130 m from her home in the drenching rain. She was unconscious and dehydrated, and her face and body were covered in bruises, police said.

/Yonhap

Police found her clothes on the banks of the river just 5 m away. She also displayed physical signs of rape and was rushed to hospital. Doctors diagnosed a ruptured large intestine as well as a 5-cm laceration on her genitals.

The girl told the police that on waking up she found a stranger holding her wrapped in the blanket and walking.

Police said the suspect appeared to have a good knowledge of the neighborhood since he entered the girl's house and walked to the scene of the crime instead of driving.