A strip cartoon and hologram have generated 250 tip-offs about a rapist who struck several times in 2010, news website Nu.nl said on Wednesday.

Police hope the unorthodox approach will lead them to identify the man who attacked three girls in the storage areas of flats in Schiedam and Vlaardingen, raping two of them in the late summer over 11 years ago.

The two page illustration was published at the end of December and the life-sized 3D image was shown on television earlier in the year, along with interviews with the three victims, who were 13, 15 and 16 at the time.

The hologram was also shown to passersby in shopping centres in Schiedam and Vlaardingen several weeks ago in an effort to track him down.

Bikes

The rapist approached the girls in late summer 2010 when they were putting their bikes away in the cellar storage areas and threatened them with a knife. One girl was able to escape.

Police think the man is local and have renewed their appeal for help. ‘Every tip could have that crucial extra bit of information,’ a police officer told television programme Opsporing Verzocht earlier this week.

Police decided to publish an illustrated version of the case because ‘showing a story in pictures could… bring the case to the attention of a different public,’ police say.