Catalan police investigate rape of 16-year-old girl

Catalan police, the Mossos d'Esquadra, are investigating the rape of a 16-year-old girl, which took place during the early hours of Monday morning in Igualada in central Catalonia.

Members of the victims family have said that she was assaulted while on her way to the train station after leaving a party on Halloween night.

She was initially brought from the industrial estate where she was found to Igualada Hospital, before being transferred to Sant Joan de Déu in Barcelona, where she is currently being treated.

Police sources say that investigators are not ruling out the possibility that the girl was attacked by more than one assailant.

Minute's silence held

The crime has shocked residents of her hometown, Masquefa, where a minute's silence was held on Wednesday. More than 250 people gathered in front of the town hall to condemn the sexual assault.

"The whole town feels like it's been attacked," mayor Xavier Boquete said, calling for "an end to the great scourge of gender-based violence."

Reading from a statement he said: "We come together to say enough: to rape, to physical attacks, to emotional abuse, to inequality on the grounds of gender, sex or identity."

Among the crowd gathered were teachers from the Institut de Masquefa and many high school students, classmates of the victim.