A young traveller has been left with life-altering injuries after trying to run from a sex attacker in Thailand.

Hannah Gavios says she was assaulted by a local man after he offered to walk her back to her hotel in Krabi last Thursday night. According to reports in the Bangkok Post, Gavios was backpacking along Railay Beach when she got lost. The 23-year-old claims the man led her into a dark wooded area where he then attacked her, pinned her to the ground and attempted to rip her clothes off. In an attempt to flee, Gavios ran and fell off a steep cliff. The teacher endured a night of pain, trapped between rocks near the sea with a suspected broken back before rescuers found her on Friday morning. “I really thought I was going to die,” Gavios told The Mirror. “It was dark around 11pm and the only way to get back to my accommodation was by crossing the cliffs.” “I went inside a tourist shop and asked for help back to my hotel. They said it was dangerous to do at night so they told me to follow one of their workers.” “I didn’t get the best feeling about him but I was tired and wanted to get home. I’d been traveling for 16 hours so I guess I wasn’t feeling myself.” “I hit my head a few times and landed with a big bump. I was screaming in pain. It was the most painful thing ever.” “I felt like a total vegetable. I felt completely vulnerable. I couldn’t move anything,” she added. Worse still, the man followed Gavios and masturbated on her as she lay screaming in pain. “He heard me screaming and moaning and he came down and climbed down the mountain and starting crying and praying” “He was feeling very guilty. I was begging him to call for help. He got on the phone and started calling and I thought somebody was coming but nobody came.” “I was stuck with this crazy person. I was in the woods in the bushes with wild snakes crawling on me while he was still continuing to harass me,” she told Scallywag and Vagabond. “He got on top of me. He took off his pants and masturbated on me.” “He didn’t rape me but he did everything else. I really thought I was going to die,” says Gavios. The young woman is being treated at Bangkok Hospital and her parents have flown in to be by her side. Surgeon Dr Narote Trinarong reported that she had an operation and it went well. “At the moment she can move her hands but not her legs. She needs more recovery time and may have to stay in hospital for another week. Otherwise, she is doing fine and is mentally resilient,” he said. The local man, Apai Ruengvorn was arrested on Friday.