Police have arrested a man in connection with the alleged sexual assault of an Italian teacher holidaying in Malta.

Sources say the suspect was arrested after he was identified from images taken from security cameras at an establishment in Buġibba. 

Lara Ali Shahin, a teacher and local councillor from Italy’s Veneto region had previously described how her getaway to Malta took a frightening turn after a man followed her into her St Paul’s Bay hotel last Sunday. 

She said she was out with friends she had just met in a nearby pub when a man around her age made advances that she ignored.  

As she returned to her room later in the evening she came across the same man, who claimed he too had a room there. 

She said she screamed, alerting staff who rushed to her room and managed to pull the man off. He then escaped, she told Times of Malta.  

“The police told me I will have to go back to identify the aggressor if they find him,” Ali Shahin had said.  

“Sadly my initial positive view of Malta has disappeared,” said the 32-year-old who frequently travels by herself but never experienced a similar trauma.

She criticised the lack of security that had made the attack possible.