ROME, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) -- A cultural mediator in a migrant center in northern Italy was allegedly abused by a guest of the facility, according to an Italian media report on Wednesday.
The perpetrator is believed to be a 27-year-old man from Sierra Leone who applied for asylum in the country, Ansa news agency reported.
He is alleged to have assaulted a female professional aged 26, after shutting her in the bathroom of the center.
The center hosts asylum seekers in the Bergamo province of Lombardy region.
Two other migrants tried to stop the assault, and the assailant fled the scene, Ansa reported, citing the chief prosecutor in Bergamo. The man was later caught and arrested by police, and charged with sexual assault.
A series of reported sexual assaults has shaken Italy this summer, prompting some politicians to call on the government to impose tougher penalties on rape.
The latest cases included a doctor in Catania, Sicily, who was raped by an Italian man while working at the emergency room of the local hospital, and a German woman reportedly robbed and raped in the park of Villa Borghese in Rome.
Earlier in September, two officers of Italy's military police were also put under investigation for allegedly raping two U.S. students in Florence, while four foreign men -- three of which minors -- were arrested in two cases of gang rape in the coastal town of Rimini.
