Two teenage girls were gang raped by about 30 men at a temple fair site in Thung Khru district, Bangkok early yesterday, police said.

At 7am, police went to Bang Pakok hospital where 14-year-old Mew and unconscious 15-year-old Gig (not their real names), were treated, said Police Lieutenant Krisada Kaensamrong, of Rat Burana police station.

Their friend Tuk (also not her real name), 15, told police she, her boyfriend and the two girls were at the bumper-car booth at Wat Bang Mod Sotararam in Soi Pracha-Utit 33 after the fair closed. At about 4am, roughly 30 young men, including one named Eung who had just got out of jail, approached and forced the girls at knife point to go with them.

"I was lucky because my boyfriend knew these guys and asked them not to take me away, but Mew and Gig were taken," Tuk said.

Mew and Gig were gang raped and beaten at a spot near the temple wall. The men went on to threaten others not to interfere or they too would be raped.

Police found a pair of jeans, some sandals, two used condoms, a used tampon and a knife at the scene.

A temple fair worker, who asked not to be named, said she and a co-worker were woken by a girl's cry for help.

"I saw a girl was being raped by a group of men near to my tent. I also heard another girl's cry nearby.

We dialled 191 five times, but the line was busy. An officer answered

at about 4.30am," the witness

said, adding that it was dark and she could not see the rapists' faces. She said she just heard someone calling out "Boy".

"We waited for a long time for the police. The men finished with the girls and grabbed 10 dolls from our booth. I shouted 'Thieves!', which prompted them to flee," she said, adding that her co-workers rushed the girls to hospital.

Yesterday, police were questioning 10 teenage suspects, from whom they took DNA samples to compare them with the rapists' semen in the condoms found at the scene.