Cairo: In an appalling sexual assault, a 59-year-old man raped his two-year-old granddaughter while the family was asleep, but when her mother found out she drowned her child in a tub to avoid ignominy to the family later.

The accused, identified as Faraj, waited for his daughter Merfat, 23, to go to bed before pulling her daughter out of bed and raping her in his room at their house in the East-central town of Sohag, Emirates 24/7 reported.

After discovering what happened, the mother drowned her daughter in a water bucket to avert a scandal in the conservative countryside town.

Meanwhile, the police have arrested the mother and her father on charges of murder and rape.