A boy has been charged with attempted murder and rape after ambushing a woman who was jogging through a park in France.

The child, said to be 10 years old allegedly attacked the 22-year-old victim while she ran through the Gouëdic Valley park in Saint-Brieuc, Brittany.

Julien Wattebled, the city’s public prosecutor, said he “approached her and ordered her to undress”. When she refused, the boy allegedly pulled out a knife and stabbed the woman twice, once in the arm and once in abdomen, before fleeing.

Cops tracked him down after nearly a week of searching, spotting “an individual matching the description given by the victim in every detail.”

They found a knife matching the one used in the assault among his belongings.

Clothes fitting the victim’s description were also found in a search of his home.

Despite identity documents indicating that the boy is 10 years old, doubts have been raised over his real age.

Medical examinations indicate that the boy is at least 14 years old, according to local media but prosecutor Wattebled has declined to speculate, simply stating that “the documents presented indicate an age of ten years”.

The suspect, who reportedly arrived from Kinshasa, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, about a year ago to live with his dad and is enrolled in a local school, admitted to committing the acts.

Since the law does not allow criminal measures for minors this young, the investigating judge ordered a provisional judicial educational measure (MEJP) with a 10pm – 6am house arrest and was barred from contacting his victim.