Italian police have arrested a man on suspicion of rape. He is believed to have attacked a Finnish tourist in Rome after offering to escort her home, according to local reports.

The suspect, a 22-year-old Bengali man who lived and worked in Italy, was nabbed a few hours after the alleged rape took place on Friday (8 September) night.

The 20-year-old victim had moved to Italy a few days earlier to work as a baby sitter. She spent her Friday evening with some friends who were visiting her.

When she and one of her friends looked for a taxi to go back home, the woman was approached by the man, who offered to give her a lift home.

During the car journey, the man tried to have sex with the woman, who started shouting.

"I was scared of dying," the victim said, according to news agency Ansa. "He told me that if I moved or tried to flee he would kill me. He was threatening me while he held a big stone".

The man then dragged her behind a bus parked near Termini train station, where he allegedly raped her. He then stole some money from her wallet and fled.

A woman who lived nearby called the police after witnessing the alleged sexual violence taking place.

The man is due to be interrogated in the next few days.

Rome mayor, Virginia Raggi, expressed her solidarity with the victim. "Rome does not accept any type of violence," she wrote on her Twitter account.

The alleged sexual violence is the latest case of rape to occur in Italy in recent weeks. An Ivorian man was arrested after he tried to rape an American tourist in a park in Rome on Friday morning.

Two Italian policemen are accused of raping to US students after escorting them from a nightclub in Florence.

Earlier this month, the gang-rape of a Polish tourist and a transgender woman rocked the tourist town of Rimini.

Four people were arrested after being accused of raping a Polish woman while beating and robbing her husband and forcing him to watch the sexual violence. The gang was also accused of raping a Peruvian transgender woman on the same night.

Poland has called for the extradition of those accused of raping the 26-year-old Polish woman. Those arrested include a 20-year-old Congolese man who had arrived in Italy in 2015. The other alleged gang rapists are two brothers aged 15 and 17 and a 16-year-old boy.

The recent cases of rape have reignited a debate on immigration in Italy, with far-right movements calling for a halt to immigration and chemical castration for the alleged rapists.

Following the latest case in Rome, the leader of the Lega Nord political party, Matteo Salvini, wrote on Twitter: "As he was waiting to pay for our pensions, the 'poor' refugee was raping people. They are too many and I will send home many of them! Chemical castration and he will never do it again".

He also called on Laura Boldrini, President of the Chamber of Deputies of Italy, to condemn the episode.

Boldrini has faced some criticism for her open policy on migration. The politician has often claimed the peninsula needs more migrants, whom she defined as "resources" that can help the country's stagnant economy.

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