Tourist gang raped on Italian beach as boyfriend is savagely beaten

26-year-old Polish couple hospitalised after brutal attack

A pair of beach slippers lie on the sand where a suspected gang rape of a Polish tourist and the beating of her partner took place in Rimini, Italy (Manuel Migliorini/ANSA via AP)

Italian police are investigating after a Polish tourist was gang raped as her boyfriend was savagely beaten on Italy's popular Rimini beach.

Italian news reports said the man passed out after being beaten on the head and robbed.

His partner was repeatedly raped by four men early on Saturday on a secluded stretch of beach in the Adriatic town on Italy's eastern coast, near San Marino.

Italian Scientific Police investigate the site where a couple of Polish tourists were attacked by four men, in Miramare in Rimini (EPA/MANUEL MIGLIORINI)

Media reports said the 26-year-old Polish couple were hospitalised with injuries.

Passers-by called police after seeing the couple, bloodied and dazed, on the beach.

Italian police are still searching for the suspects of what they described as a "brutal and bestial attack."

Last year, a 17-year-old British tourist was raped on the same stretch of beach.

The girl went to the beach with a man she had meet to "watch the shooting stars" when he attacked and raped her.

A 19-year-old man was arrested after last year's attack.