Shocking Gang Rape Video Goes Viral In South Africa

Women place white flowers outside parliament
during a demonstration in Cape Town on the
 International Day for the Prevention of
Violence against Women.

South Africans woke up on Wednesday morning to the claim that a group of Soweto youths had filmed themselves raping a 17-year-old girl believed to be mentally ill.

The cellphone video is said to have gone viral among school kids in the township south of Johannesburg, and the term #rapevideo was trending on Twitter in South Africa on Wednesday [Apr. 18].

The Daily Sun, a local tabloid, reports that it alerted the police after a concerned mother whose daughter was watching the video handed it over to the paper on Tuesday.

"The mother of a teenage girl saw the horrifying pictures and confiscated her daughter's phone. A work colleague of the woman said they recognized some of the boys and advised her to take the video to Daily Sun", the newspaper reported.

The suspects, aged between 14 and 20, were arrested Tuesday morning and charged with kidnapping and rape, police spokesperson Warrant Officer Kay Makhubela said.

"The video is very bad. The men can be clearly identified as they take turns raping and filming her", she told CNN.

The girl's mother reported her missing on March 21, Makhubela said.

Media reports suggest the police initially failed to open a missing person case but that they have since done so.

Police suspect the girl was kidnapped and turned into a sex slave.

A local radio station got hold of the video and has been getting requests to post it

SOURCE: CNN