NEW YORK'S finest have found a sinister ally in their bid to track down a rapist who is terrorising the city's Chinatown - the local triad gangs.
Notorious gangs such as the Fuk Ching and Ghost Shadows, furious at the rapist's activities drawing an unwanted spotlight on to their turf, have vowed to catch and kill the man even if he evades the police.
The ''Chinatown Rapist'', who is now etching himself a place in Manhattan's already rich criminal folklore, struck again last week, raping a 10-year-old girl as her grandmother was forced to look on in horror.
The perpetrator, thought to be a mainland immigrant who speaks Mandarin, is believed to be behind two rapes and four sexual assaults of young Chinese girls in a tiny area of the city's Lower East Side. He stalks his victims among the district's grim housing projects, attacking them at knifepoint inside their buildings.
New York's police department has launched a huge manhunt and drafted in Chinese-speaking officers from all over the city in a bid to catch the rapist before he strikes again.
But with the police's only clue being a crude photofit built up from victims' descriptions, gang members have made it clear they are out looking for the attacker.
''He's causing them a lot of trouble, bringing the spotlight into their neighbourhood, and they don't like that. It's a turf thing,'' Captain Gerald Griffin of the major crimes squad said.