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Hannah Gavios, 23, from Bayside, N.Y., was attacked last Thursday in the southern seaside province of Krabi, a popular tourist destination, police said.



The woman told police that a man who offered to help guide her back to her hotel at night took her down a remote path and tried to remove her clothes.



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 told the Daily Mail.



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.



I started walking back to where I came from. Once there was distance between us I started running.



She fled but blindly ran off the edge of a 45-meter (150-foot) cliff in the darkness.



It was pitch black and before I knew it I was in mid air falling off a cliff. I was honestly thinking I wouldnt survive, she said.



The woman was found by rescuers the next morning and is now recovering after surgery.



According to Krabi Tourist Police Inspector Attapong Sanjaiwut, the alleged attacker said that the account of sexual assault was a misunderstanding, and that he stayed by the womans side part of the night and called rescuers in the morning.



Police have detained the alleged attacker, Apai Ruengvorn, 28, who faces 5 to 20 years in prison if convicted of causing serious injury and obscene behaviour toward another person.



Attapong said police sent an initial report Wednesday to prosecutors, who are waiting to take testimony from the victim before she leaves Thailand. He suggested the woman might be able to leave for the United States in about 10 days.