A 17-year-old pizza delivery boy attempted to rape a 25-year-old engineering graduate who was alone at her aunt’s house in Prabhadevi on Tuesday night and also attacked her with a knife and a wooden plank when she fought back.

The boy ran away after she screamed for help. He was arrested later.

The woman had placed an order at Chovisam Pizza, a pizzeria at Prabhadevi, for home delivery. The delivery boy arrived around 7.30pm, gave her the pizza, but returned 10 minutes later under the pretext of making a fresh delivery. When she told him she had not placed a new order, he pushed her inside, locked the door and dragged her into the kitchen. The 25-year-old, however, put up a fight.

That’s when the boy picked up a kitchen knife, attacked her three times with it and hit her on the head with a wooden plank.

When the woman cried for help, the boy fled with her mobile phone. Hearing the 25-year-old’s screams, neighbours rushed to her flat, the door of which was latched from the outside.

The police then contacted the pizzeria and nabbed the boy from his house in Worli Koliwada the same night, said Deepak Pawar, senior inspector at Worli police station. The woman’s mobile phone was recovered as well.

The Class VIII dropout, said the police, had been hired by Chovisam Pizza about 20 days ago.

Swapnil Parab, the owner of the pizzeria, said the boy had been employed by the restaurant as part of its efforts to hire Marathi boys. He added he hired the boy as a favour to a neighbour. “His father had recently approached me asking me to get his son some work in order to assist the family. I, being a Marathi manoos, felt that I should help the Marathi boy come up in life and, hence, employed him. We are cooperating with the police.”

The woman, who was undergoing treatment at Nair Hospital, hails from Wardha district in Vidarbha. She had arrived in Mumbai a few days ago in search of a job.

The assaultThe boy dragged the woman to her kitchen, as well as attacked her with a kitchen knife three times and hit her on the head with a wooden plank when she fought back. He ran away with her phone when she screamed for help.