A serial rapist was caught in a child’s bedroom after carrying out 40 sex attacks in 12 months in one Nigerian town.

On Tuesday police arrested 32-year-old Muhammad Alfa in Kwanar Dangora, on the outskirts of Kano in north west Nigeria.

During a police interview, he confessed to having raped more than 40 women in a year, including girls as young as 10, married women, and an 80-year-old woman.

It comes as Nigeria’s Minister of Women’s Affairs called on law enforcement to speed up rape investigations after an ‘alarming’ spike in cases during the country’s coronavirus lockdown.

The Kano State Police Command’s public relations officer, DSP Abdullahi Haruna, said the suspect was apprehended after a mother, from the northern town of Dangora, caught the man in her child’s bedroom.

The man ran away but neighbours chased him and caught him.

Haruna added that the community was happy after receiving the news that the serial rapist had been arrested by the police.

The chief of the town, Ahmadu Yau, also said the arrest was a welcome development, after residents told how they have been living in fear for the last year after hearing about a series of rapes.