British girl, 17, raped by man posing as taxi driver while on holiday in Tenerife

The attack happened near bars in the popular resort of Playa de las Americas

An beach in Playa de las Americas, Tenerife, Canary Islands (Getty Images )

A 17-year-old British girl has been raped in Tenerife by a man posing as a taxi driver.

The teenager, from Blackburn, had been at a bar in the popular resort of Playa de las Americas in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

After searching for a taxi to return to where she was staying she was picked up by a man driving an Opel Astra, police said.

According to local newspaper La Provincia, the man then drove her to an area of wasteland nearby, removed her clothes and raped her.

A passer-by who heard her screams reportedly alerted police, who arrived to find the attacker had fled but intercepted his car minutes later and arrested him at the scene.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office told The Independent it was providing assistance in the case.

The attack came after a 13-year-old Irish girl was raped in the same area near the Las Veronicas shopping centre in May.