Somalian-born Author Attacked By Stalker

The actress, model and best-selling author Waris Dirie was last night recovering after an obsessed stalker tracked her down to her new home in Vienna and attacked her.

Ms Dirie, 40, moved from her flat in Cardiff a week ago to escape the persecution of a 26-year-old Portuguese man who had become convinced that she loved him.

But yesterday the man, named by Austrian police only as Paulo A, was in custody after apparently following her 1,000 miles across Europe and gaining access to her apartment by climbing through a neighbour's window.

The Somali-born writer, whose stellar career has included a role in a Bond movie and modelling for Chanel, and who is now a special ambassador for the UN, was said to be traumatised.

"She was so frightened and in shock that she let him in," a police spokesman, Harald Hofmayer, said.

Ms Dirie suffered minor injuries when her assailant threw her to the floor, he added. The attacker left in a taxi, only to return later on foot and smash one of the building's ground-floor windows. He was arrested when neighbours called the police.

The suspect met Ms Dirie about six months ago when his brother was working at her previous residence in Wales, police said. He later broke into that home and stole items of her clothing.

Ms Dirie, one of 12 children born to desert nomads in Somalia, wrote a best-selling autobiography in 1998, Desert Flower - the meaning of her name in her native tongue - recounting how she was circumcised at the age of five.

At 13, she escaped being sold into marriage by walking 300 miles across the desert to the capital, Mogadishu, drinking from camels to survive.

She moved to Britain, where she was discovered by a photographer, and became a model for the cosmetics company Revlon and for Chanel's perfumes, appearing alongside Naomi Cambell. She appeared in the James Bond film, The Living Daylights.

Ms Dirie later abandoned modelling to take up a job as a special ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund, campaigning against female circumcision.

She moved to Wales with her young son two years ago.