A middle-aged woman who claims she was abducted by two men and raped for over two hours in a popular south Dublin park has checked into a psychiatric hospital after admitting she made it up.

The 55-year-old sparked panic in Terenure last month when she flagged down a passer-by in a distressed state saying she had been viciously assaulted in Bushy Park.

She was rushed to the sexual assault unit at the Rotunda Hospital for treatment and a massive garda manhunt was launched involving over 40 uniformed and plainclothes officers.

The woman said two men in their late teens with dark clothes and Dublin accents abducted her and took her to the nearby park where she was raped for two-and-a-half hours by one of the men while the other watched.

Gardaí spent the last three weeks interviewing hundreds of people in the vicinity and checked hundreds of hours of CCTV footage from across Dublin but could find no trace of the alleged attackers.

They have now halted the investigation after finding no evidence that any rape or incident of that nature occurred.

The woman told gardaí she was suffering from terminal cancer but it has now emerged this is not true and she is healthy.

Last week she signed a statement admitting that she made up the rape story and has been admitted to St Patrick's psychiatric hospital for treatment.

Sources say the woman will not be charged with making a false statement despite the fact tens of thousands of euro was spent investigating her false claims because she is suffering from a mental illness.

Local people in Terenure have been living in fear that serial sex attackers might be on the loose and there has been a big drop in women walking alone or using the park.

Senior gardaí stressed the park is perfectly safe and there is no danger posed to people using it.