A WOMAN has been accused of making up a claim she had been raped beside a busy road.

The 26-year-old will appear before magistrates next month after she was charged on Wednesday by officers with wasting police time over the reported incident on the A420, near Buckland, in November.

Police launched a manhunt after they were told a woman had been attacked and raped in a lay-by on the road.

Officers investigated the complaint that a woman motorist was enticed from the Swindon-bound carriageway of the road by someone initially said to be a woman but later amended to a man who appeared to be in a state of distress between 9.15pm and 9.45pm on Monday, November 28.

The woman told officers a second man wearing a balaclava emerged from the bushes and threatened her with a knife. She said she was dragged from the vehicle into nearby bushes and raped.

Police said she had suffered knife wounds. She went to Great Western Hospital in Swindon.

Appealing for witnesses, police said they were told the complainant was ordered back into her car afterwards and she drove home.

It sparked a massive police operation in the area.

Police searched the neighbouring fields around the lay-by and hundreds of motorists were stopped by officers looking for witnesses.

Days into the inquiry, police said they were following up leads from 36 people who answered their appeals for help.

Police said a woman had been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

Police spokesman Victoria Bartlett said the 26-year-old woman who had been charged would appear before Didcot magistrates on Thursday, May 18.

She said police would not be releasing the woman's name ahead of her court appearance.