The Witness reported that on Saturday, Mthonjaneni Municipality protection services manager Derek Horne heard the screams of two girls and reported the matter to police.

Local police said they could not respond to the complaint because there was no police car available.

Horne apparently told the charge office that an attempted rape was taking place only a block from the police station, but could get no undertaking from police that they would investigate.

Horne resolved to help the girls himself.

"I walked through an open security gate into the building, heading for the source of the screams and saw two young girls, I estimate about 12 years and 16 years old. They had been tied to cement windows, with rope around their hands, and two young men were attempting to rape them," Horne was quoted as saying.

The perpetrators ran off, and Horne helped the traumatised girls.

Captain Tienkie van Vuuren, spokeswoman for Eshowe police, said an internal investigation would be launched into the matter.