NYC Hotel to Buy 'Panic Buttons' for Housekeepers

NEW YORK – A New York hotel is promising to buy "panic buttons" for its housekeepers after an Egyptian businessman was accused of attacking a maid in one of its rooms.

The Pierre Hotel said it would give the devices to housekeepers so they can signal for help.

On Sunday evening a maid at the Pierre told her supervisor that guest Mahmoud Abdel Salam Omar forced himself on her in his room.

On Wednesday Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said the case may be hard to prosecute because the hotel did not report it until the next day. Omar says he is innocent.

On May 14 another housekeeper accused the head of the International Monetary Fund of attacking her at the Sofitel Hotel in Manhattan. Dominique Strauss-Kahn has resigned but denies the charges.