Bari, 67-year-old Romanian man arrested after being groped while walking downtown with friends this morning.

BARI - A woman was groped while walking with friends in the city center, on Corso Vittorio Emanuele. It happened in Bari on Wednesday, August 6th. In the late morning, Carabinieri officers from the Bari San Nicola station arrested a 67-year-old Romanian man in flagrante delicto, accused of sexual assault against a 23-year-old woman.

Officers, engaged in "Neighborhood Carabiniere" duty on Corso Cavour, were alerted by three young women to stop a man from fleeing. One of the three women, still very agitated, reported that while she was walking along Corso Vittorio Emanuele with two friends, she was suddenly approached by a man who groped her. The screams of one of the women deterred the man, who, upon realizing the Carabinieri's presence, attempted to escape into the adjacent streets, unsuccessfully trying to hide inside a garbage bin. After a brief chase, the Carabinieri managed to stop the man on Via Abate Gimma, and then proceeded to reconstruct what happened.

The accounts of the victim and the two witnesses thus allowed the reconstruction of the events, the acquisition of solid evidence to provide to the Public Prosecutor of the local Public Prosecutor's Office, and the arrest of the man. This precautionary measure was subsequently validated by the Preliminary Investigations Judge of the Court of Bari.