Detectives are carrying out searches in Carlow after reports of a sexual assault on a teenage girl.

The 14-year-old appeared on the doorstep of a home in Bagenalstown in the early hours of Tuesday morning claiming she’d been assaulted.

The attack is believed to have happened near a bonfire in a local park sometime between 11.30pm on Monday night and 2.15am the next morning.

Speaking to local station KCLR, Superintendent Gerry Redmond says anyone with information should come forward: We’re appealing for witnesses from any persons or people who were at that bonfire, or passed by the bonfire or passed by the laneways and housing estates near that bonfire.

“Or were in conversation with anyone from that bonfire and who think they might be able to help us. We are talking about a very serious sexual assault on a young girl.”