Woman sexually assaulted as she lay helpless after 45m cliff fall.

Hannah Gavios had only been in Thailand for two days when she stopped off at the popular Thai beach resort, Krabi.

The 23-year-old, who was working as a teacher in Vietnam was taking a break from work and had been travelling for 16 hours when, exhausted, she found herself lost.

She stopped at a tourist shop to ask for directions and a local man offered to help her back to her hotel but she soon realised the man had no intent of helping her.

He led her instead to a pitch-black mountain in the jungle, where he attacked her.

“I really thought I was going to die,” Gavios, originally from New York said.

“It was dark around 11pm and the only way to get back to my accommodation was by crossing the cliffs.”

As she fled in the dark her attacker began to assault her.

She told media “While we were walking he grabbed me and was holding me down and trying to take off my clothes”

Hannah Gavios had only been in Thailand for two days when she was attacked. Via Facebook.

She says she fought him off.

“ I started punching him in the face and beating him up and biting off his ear. I was biting his ear so hard it almost came off. His ear was half torn off,” Ms Gavios said.

“He was in pain and asked me to stop, so we shook hands and he stopped but I was still nervous and he was still trying to harass me so there was no choice but to run.”

She says as she unknowingly approached a cliff she ran off the edge in the darkness.

“I hit my head a few times and landed with a big bump” she said “I was screaming in pain. It was the most painful thing ever.”

Ms Gavios lay crippled at the bottom of the cliff unable to move, but to her horror her alleged attacker, a Thai local Apai Ruengvorn, 28 followed her.

“He heard me screaming and moaning and he came down and climbed down the mountain and starting crying and praying.”

She says while she was begging him for help she thought she would die.

“I was in the woods in the bushes with wild snakes crawling on me while he was still continuing to harass me.”

Ms Gavios says the man then climbed on top of her and sexually assaulted her.

“He got on top of me. He took of his pants and masturbated on me. He didn't rape me but he did everything else. I really thought I was going to die.”

She said that her only choice was to stay calm reports The Daily Mail.

“I screamed he was choking me so I had to try to keep cool and stay friendly with him.”

Finally, Ruengvorn ran off but he returned hours later with some other locals who raised the alarm.

Ms Gavios is being treated at Bangkok Hospital in Phuket. Via Facebook.

Tourist Police Lt Col Attapong Sanjaiwut and Krabi Tourist Rescue Centre Director Nitiphat Mongkolpradit said that emergency personnel rescued Ms Gavios after receiving a call reporting that a tourist had been injured after she had fallen down a mountain.

"Rescue workers were searching for her last night, but they could not find her, so this morning we when out to search again and discovered her lying in between rocks about 45 metres from the trail at the top of the mountain. She was only 15 metres from the water below,” he told The Phuket News.

“Ms Gavios is experiencing numbness on both of her legs and doctors have yet to confirm whether either of her legs are broken,” he said

He confirmed she was escaping an attacker who was sexually harassing her.

Apai Ruengvorn admitted the attack to police and has been charged with committing obscene behaviour toward another person and causing serious injury.

Ms Gavios is being treated at Bangkok Hospital in Phuket