RAUTAHAT: An 18-year-old man raped a 10-year-old Dalit girl in Pataura VDC of Rautahat on Friday evening.

Radheshyam Patel raped the girl in a sugarcane field while she had gone to collect fodder for cattle, the Area Police Office, Garunda informed.

Patel fled away after committing the crime, police said.

Locals rescued the girl while she was bleeding excessively from her private part.

The victim’s family with the help of locals rushed her to the Garunda-based Health and Clinic for treatment.

Later, the hospital referred her to the Narayani Sub-Regional Hospital in Birgunj after her bleeding did not stop and her condition gradually turned into critical yesterday night, police informed.

Again, she was taken to the National Medical College in Birgunj after she could not be treated at the Narayani Sub-Regional Hospital, police Inspector Santulal Prasad Jaiswar of the Area Police Office, Garunda said.

Jaiswar said that they have started a manhunt to nab the perpetrator.