Spanish police are investigating an alleged sexual assault carried out on an Irish teenager who was attacked in Tenerife, writes Noel Baker, senior reporter.

The incident is said to have taken place close to the Playa de las Americas area on the Spanish holiday island in the early hours of May 26.

Tenerife newspaper El Dia reported this week that the victim may have been aged just 13.

According to the report, officers from the National Police Commissioner in the southern part of the island are investigating the attack, which is alleged to have occurred on a beach close to the busy las Verónicas area in Arona.

The report said the girl was a young Irish tourist who had been walking in the area with her brother.

However, she seems to have become separated from him when the assailant, described as being of European appearance and also possibly a tourist, took her to a pebble beach next to a pedestrian street called Francisco Andrade Fumero, shortly after 2am.

After the attack the girl raised the alarm and was attended to by medical staff in a local hospital.

A report of a sexual assault, also described in the local media as a rape, was then made by the victim some hours later to the office of the Commissariat of National Police for the south of island.

A separate unit within the local police has been carrying out an investigation but the local press reported concerns there that the perpetrator may have already left the holiday island.

The Department of Foreign Affairs said yesterday it was aware of reports of the incident but would not be providing any comment.

This story first appeared in the Irish Examiner.