PHUKET: A Chinese tourist has told Phuket police she was raped by the driver of a Phuket metered taxi at the weekend.

Deputy Commander of Phuket Police, Colonel Peerayut Karajedee, said today that the woman hailed the metered cab in the Cape Panwa region, east of Phuket City, in daylight on Saturday.

She told police that she requested to be taken to the Premium Outlet Phuket shopping precinct in the bypass road, on the outskirts of Phuket City.

The cab driver had his wife in the vehicle and dropped his wife off along the way, the Chinese tourist told police.

Colonel Peerayut said that instead of taking the tourist shopping, the taxi went to a motel in the Poonpol district of Phuket City.

There, the woman told police, the taxi driver raped her. She went straight to Phuket City Police Station to report the rape, the colonel said.

The driver was quickly arrested. Both the accused and his alleged victim appeared in Phuket Provincial Court this afternoon, Colonel Peerayut said.

Metered taxis operate from the airport and drivers seldom have permission to pick up passengers in regions across other parts of Phuket that are strictly controlled by Phuket's taxi and tuk-tuk drivers.