KARACHI, Jan 23: A three-year-old girl was sexually assaulted by a hitherto unidentified man in a Gulberg area, police said on Monday.

They said that the incident occurred in Bengali Para, or Rehmanabad, within the remit of the Gulberg police station on Sunday evening.

The victim was kidnapped by the man when she had gone out of her house to buy some sweets. He took her to a nearby vacant house and subjected her to a sexual assault, they added.

They said that when the victim returned home she informed her family about the tragedy and the family told the police about it on Monday.

The girl underwent a medical examination at the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, where doctors confirmed that the little girl had been raped, police said, adding that a case (FIR 21/2012) was registered under Section 376 (punishment for rape) of the Pakistan Penal Code on a complaint of the victim's father.