FIVE RUNAWAY teenagers, two of them female, have been arrested and charged on Phuket with raping a 14-year-old Japanese-Thai girl.

The five accused were presented at Phuket City police headquarters today wearing balaclava masks. As they are all aged 14 to 16, they cannot be identified.

The two accused girls are both aged 14. The alleged victim told police that one of the girls, both considered her friends, held her mouth and arms and the second held her feet while the three males raped her.

She had run away from home to join the girls, but she was not aware they had boyfriends, police said. All five accused were arrested last night at the Loy Kratong Fair at Saphan Hin.

The Thai mother of the alleged victim contacted police on October 26, when her daughter went missing.

Two days later, police said, the girl was raped, and told her mother by telephone. The mother went looking for her daughter, asking her daughter's friends where she could be found.

Having found the girl at the house in Bangkok Road where a group of young runaways were staying, the mother took her daughter to police.

Police were granted arrest warrants by the Juvenile Court and apprehended the group last night.

Phuket police chief Major General Pekad Tantipong oversaw the parade of the alleged rapists at Phuket City's new police headquarters today.

The five accused were all runaways who did not attend school. All five had a record of drug possession charges, he said.

The mother and Japanese father of the alleged victim are divorced, police said.