DUBAI: These images capture the horrifying moment when a man hit a nine-year-old girl over the head with a piece of paving slab, knocking her from her bicycle in what has been described as a random attack.
The girl, named as Ama, can be seen playing with friends outside her home in Turkey when the man walks up behind her and slams the object against the back of her head, apparently knocking her unconscious.
Police are treating the attack as an attempted murder, because of the force used to hit her according to British website MailOnline.
The man remained at large for two months before he was finally caught. Police arrested him when he attacked a second girl at a bus stop in the Atakum district of Samsun Province on northern Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
Turkish police have named the attacker as 33-year-old Osman C, who can be seen in the video footage walking up to three girls playing, then suddenly hitting Ama on the head.
The young girl was taken to hospital and held under observation for a few days, before being allowed to return home.
In the second attack eyewitnesses grabbed Osman C and pinned him down until police arrived.
He later said he had no recollection of the first attack, but was charged with both.
He is now being held in a mental health hospital while it is decided if he is fit for trial.
Prosecutors, who want to see Osman C jailed for up to 20 years for the attempted murder of a child, said: “The suspect hits the child in the head with a huge stone very hard and then runs away…. It is very clear from the way he hits the girl’s head so hard that he was trying to deliberately kill the victim.”
