A 72-year-old woman who was raped by a teenage migrant has the 'lost the will to live' a few months before her attacker is due to be released from jail in Austria.

The woman is reportedly fighting for her life in the intensive care ward at her local hospital after she stopped eating and is now only being kept alive by machines.

Her daughter, who until the tragedy was a refugee aid worker, said: 'I knew it would eventually end like this.'

The pensioner was attacked on 1 September 2015 by a 17-year-old asylum seeker from Afghanistan when she offered him her hand to pull him out of a canal where he was swimming.

When the case went to court in January this year, the teen, identified as Wahab M., was given a 20-month jail sentence.

The Afghan teen who raped a 72-year-old woman is pictured (right) entering a courtroom in Austria

He will not be deported when he is released because the punishment is not more than three years.

The woman was attacked in autumn last year while walking her dog alongside the canal in Traiskirchen, where Austria's largest refugee centre is located.

She told the court at the time: 'It was a really hot day and I decided to take my dog for a walk along the Schwechat River, and saw two young men swimming there.'

She said that one of the young men had offered her his hand, asking her to help him onto the bank, which she had given.

She said: 'Suddenly, I felt a blow from behind.'

The pensioner was attacked on 1 September 2015. The 17-year-old was handed a 20-month sentence in January this year

She was grabbed then pushed to the ground, and the attacker put his hand over her mouth and used his other hand to tear off her clothing and rape her.

A friend of the elderly woman, Hans Vesely, 72, said: 'The dog that she had with her was 13 years old and was sadly not up to protecting his mistress from the attack.'

The woman, who weighs just 7.5 stone, managed to get herself home where she locked the door and was later found by a friend.

Vesely said: 'She is not the same woman anymore. She doesn't trust being left on her own and does not leave home, and she's become very weak since the incident.'